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flfcanual 



OF 



Sacreb IRbetoric; 



OR, 



Mow to prepare a Sermon. 



BY 

TRcv. JSernat& ffeenes, 

St. Joseph's College, 
Mt. Angel, Ore. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., igoz. 

Published by B. HERDER, 

17 South Broadway. 






THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Cones Received 

MAY. 21 1901 

COPVRIGHT ENTRV 

'May' 3, '1<>! 

CLASS OLXXc. N». 

copy a. 



IMPRIMATUR. 
St. Louis, Mo., November 6th, 1900. 

H. MuBhl,siepen, V. G. 



PRINTING AND BOOK MFG. CO. 
ST. LOUIS, MO. 



Copyright, 1901, by Joseph Gummersbach. 



Introduction. 

Some hold that Preaching is not an art. 

"All your rules of rhetoric, sacred and 
profane/' they say, "are comprised in the 
good old American maxim: Fill yourself 
full of your subject, as though you were a 
barrel; take out the bung; and let nature 
caper. " 

It is hardly credible that such advice 
could be given or taken seriously. Yet 
men, unlikely to make a jest of sacred 
things, have been known to give it; and 
sermons heard occasionally in our pulpits 
prove that it is sometimes followed in prac- 
tice. Nay, often the practice improves on 
the advice, and dispenses altogether with 
the "filling up" process. 

There must be art in the doing of any 
work in which complex means have to be 
employed to do it well ; for art is the skill- 
ful use of such means, whether the work be 
a kitchen table or an epic poem. Now, 

(i) 



ii Introduction. 

Preaching relying on divine help, under- 
takes a very difficult and complicated work, 
namely, to move the will of another from a 
state of apathy or opposition to activity in 
a definite direction. To do this, several 
means have to be employed : obstacles and 
prepossessions have to be removed ; interest 
has to be awakened ; the intellect has to be 
enlightened by exposition and illustration ; 
the feelings have to be aroused and enlisted ; 
the will itself has to be brought under the 
direct influence of motives calculated to 
determine it to action. Each of these 
means has to be wisely regulated by laws 
taken from the highest achievements of ora- 
tory and based on the principles of human 
thought and conduct. Hence, the necessity 
of an art of Sacred Rhetoric, to acquire 
knowledge of those laws and skill in their 
application. 

" Apostolic Preaching" is often spoken of 
as the ideal form of announcing the divine 
Word; and because the Apostles are not 
credited with a knowledge of rhetoric, their 
preaching is supposed to have been crude 
and unartistic. From this it is inferred that 
unstudied, unarranged discourse, when 



Introduction. iii 

prompted by zeal, is immensely superior to 
discourse that is well ordered and elaborated. 
To such reasoning it is enough to reply, that 
we are not the Apostles: we have not seen 
our Saviour in the flesh •, we have not lived 
in daily intercourse with Him for years ; we 
have not witnessed His miracles, His Re- 
surrection; we have not the whole-souled 
earnestness of the Apostles, — their ardent 
zeal, their heroic sanctity. We cannot, 
therefore, presume to preach as they 
preached, unless, having seen what they 
saw, we live and labor as they lived and 
labored, and be ready to die as they died. 
The same may be said of the preaching of 
saints and saintly men. One must be a 
Cure of Ars to preach as the Cure of Ars. 
The truth is, that the Church, from the 
beginning, under divine guidance, took the 
arts into her service; and, from being 
ministers of sin, she made them agents of 
grace for its destruction. Music, painting, 
sculpture, poetry have been so employed by 
her ; and the glorious records of the Catholic 
pulpit, from Cyprian to Lacordaire, show 
conclusively that the art of oratory was en- 
listed with the others. 



iv Introduction. 

Preaching, then, being an art, must be 
studied as all art is studied, by learning its 
rules or methods, and by applying them. 
The knowledge of rhetorical rules is of no 
practical account without assiduous exercise 
in their application. Hence, to turn out 
efficient preachers, long and uninterrupted 
training in the composition and delivery of 
sermons is absolutely necessary. This 
training should begin in the preparatory 
seminary and be continued up to the time 
of ordination. In most seminaries, I be- 
lieve, there is no provision made for the 
practice of English composition during the 
philosophy course; and, even in theology, 
the only exercises in it are the writing of a 
few sermons. The consequence is stiffness 
and gradual loss of skill in the literary ex- 
pression of all thought, intellectual, emo- 
tional, or imaginative. And this con- 
sequence follows all the more surely, when 
Latin is the only language used in the prin- 
cipal classes ; for it is well known that the 
daily use of a foreign tongue makes it diffi- 
cult to speak or write one's own fluently 
and idiomatically. The official language of 
the Church must, indeed, be familiar to 



Introduction. v 

every priest ; but its influence on the use of 
the vernacular must be neutralized; and 
this can be done only by systematic exercise 
in it as frequently as possible. 

I know that those charged with the train- 
ing of our clergy give much anxious thought 
to the selection of such exercises and studies 
as are best adapted, to the formation of an 
efficient priesthood. It is, then, with no 
purpose of censuring the present seminary 
curriculum, that I would suggest some such 
provisions as the following for the con- 
tinuous training of our clerical students in 
composition and delivery. 

First, in the preparatory seminary, I 
would recommend that subjects for essays 
be taken exclusively from Bible history, in- 
cluding the Life and Parables of our divine 
Lord, as well as the topography of the Holy 
Land and the manners, dress, domestic life 
and religious worship of the Jewish people. 
Themes taken from such subjects will surely 
be more conducive to the end of seminary 
training than those usually given in the 
rhetoric class. I would also confine elo- 
cutionary exercises to the practice of expres- 
sive reading and graceful gesture. 



vi Introduction. 

Secondly, one or two classes should be 
given eveiy week to composition during the 
philosophy course. The aim in these classes 
should be ease and skill in the emotional 
and imaginative types of prose. In all 
literature, no better models of these types 
can be found than the Psalms and Prophe- 
cies of the Bible. These, then, ought to be 
read carefully and repeatedly, and after- 
wards reproduced or paraphrased. If the 
seminary cannot afford a teacher for this 
work, the young philosophers should be 
urged to do it by themselves; and some 
gentle pressure might be brought to bear on 
them to provide against their forgetting it. 

The rules of Sacred Rhetoric ought to be 
mastered in the first year's theology and 
applied in the succeeding years. The best 
means of applying them, I should say, is 
not class or chapel sermons — although 
these, too, are necessary — but carefully 
written and memorized instructions de- 
livered in parish churches, at first in the 
Sunday school and afterwards at the Masses. 
I know there may be serious obstacles to 
such parish work ; but I am convinced there 
is none that cannot be overcome by tact 
and patience. 



Introduction. vii 

It will be thought by some that these 
suggestions, however useful in theory, re- 
quire in practice an undue share of the time 
available for seminary study and class work. 
In reply, I would ask, is the main purpose of 
an American seminary the formation of pro- 
found theologians, without any trained 
ability of expression 1 Of what practical 
use would such men be in our missions ? 
Does an apprentice become a finished car- 
penter by the study of mechanics ? Could 
a man be trusted to run a locomotive be- 
cause he knows all about the theory of 
steam ? Does not common sense insist on 
practical training for all other professions 1 
— why, then, make exception of the priest- 
hood ? If anything has to be crushed out 
of the curriculum, why must it be the art of 
Preaching — practised skill in discharging 
a primary duty of our ministry? Our 
divine Lord did not say to the Apostles: 
"Go and learn the Protean changes of 
Katal, the force of Greek particles, the 
interpretation of Koptic papyri and Tel- 
el- Amarna tablets; 7 ' but "Go teach ye 
all nations." This commission imposes 
two duties on seminaries: to impart knowl- 



viii Introduction. 

edge of what to teach, and skill in how to 
teach it. The one duty is as important and 
essential as the other. A priest who knows 
only his catechism and his Bible, but is well 
trained in the art of appropriate expression, 
is better equipped for saving souls, than 
one who has the Summa and its commen- 
taries on his fingers' ends, but cannot turn 
out a decent English sentence. With all 
respect, therefore, for other seminary clas- 
ses, I claim a place, and an important place, 
for the class of Sacred Rhetoric. 

It is not the time, however, given for such 
a class that tells with seminarians, as much 
as the rank the class holds in the seminary 
and the importance attached to it by the 
diocesan authorities. The examination for 
Orders should test quite as carefully the 
candidate's fitness for the pulpit as his fit- 
ness for the confessional. Furthermore, 
diocesan promotions should be made to de- 
pend largely on efficiency in preaching. 
Insistance on such efficiency as a conditio 
sine qua non would contribute greatly to 
emphasize the importance of preaching for 
seminarians and priests alike. 

This Manual has been written from a 



Introduction. ix 

strong conviction that something has to be 
done to make the average Sunday sermon 
more instructive, more interesting, more 
effective of spiritual good than it is at 
present. Preaching is, no doubt, of as high 
an order now as it has ever been; but it 
should be higher. The intelligence of those 
we address is keener, more developed, more 
inclined to scepticism, perhaps, than in past 
generations; and it will not be influenced 
by cant or shallowness or tricks of style or 
attitude. In these days, we must show our- 
selves "masters of the situation, " we must 
"teach like one having authority, " if we are 
to keep our hold on our people. Say what 
we may about our "gigantic strides' ' during 
the last century, there has been mucn 
weakening of faith among us from our 
close contact with non-Catholic society and 
literature. It is evident, then, that a much 
more strenuous effort is needed now than 
was needed fifty or a hundred years ago, to 
safeguard Catholics against the dangers, 
intellectual and moral, pressing in on them 
from this contact. 

From what I have here written, the two- 
fold object of this Work may be inferred. 



x Introduction. 

It is intended, first of all, to inculcate the 
necessity of earnest preparation for preach- 
ing, in view of the present requirements of 
American life, non-Catholic as well as 
Catholic. Its other object, equally im- 
portant as the first and demanding more 
detailed treatment, is to show "How to 
prepare a Sermon." The idea throughout 
is to say a first word, not the last, on proper 
equipment for the American Catholic pulpit. 
The Chapters on the Character of the 
Preacher, on his Intellectual Equipment, 
ann on the Systematic Teaching of Religion, 
are republished, with permission, from the 
American Ecclesiastical Review. 




CONTENTS. 

Chapter. Page. 

I. What is Preaching 5 

II. Personal Character of the Preacher 20 

III. Mental Equipment , 33 

IV. Faculty of Expression 51 

V. Systematic Teaching of Religion 69 

VI. Definite Object of Sermon 80 

VII. Form of a Sermon 92 

VIII. Introduction 107 

IX. Proposition and Division 129 

X. Narration and Description 147 

XI. Exposition in General 167 

XII. Definition 176 

XIII. Illustration 208 

XIV. Historical Development 229 

XV. Application 246 

XVI. Persuasion 262 

XVII. Conclusion 281 

XVIII. Meditation of Theme 301 

XIX. Reading for Matter 311 

XX. Arrangement and Composition 323 



CHAPTER I. 
What is Preaching? 

Eloquence is the faculty of persuading 
another to some definite object. Spoken 
language is its chief and ordinary form. 
Refined to an art and embodied in continued 
oral discourse, it is styled oratory. This is 
divided into sacred and profane, according 
as the object to be attained belongs to the 
supernatural or the natural order. 

Sacred oratory is popularly called Preach- 
ing, and may be defined as the address of a 
duly appointed minister of Christ on the re- 
vealed word of Grod, by which an audience, 
assisted by divine grace, is persuaded to 
some definite object in the supernatural 
order. Preaching of itself cannot be the 
efficient cause of conversion, as it was not 
instituted by our divine Lord to give sanc- 
tifying grace ; but it is appointed by Him to 
dispose the will to receive and use those 
actual graces by which man is raised to the 
supernatural life or confirmed in it. 
(5) 



6 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

The object of Preaching is persuasion, 
that is, the movement of the will to some 
practical issue conducive to salvation. The 
enlightenment of the intellect by the exposi- 
tion of revealed truth is a necessary means 
to the attainment of that object, — but only 
a means. A minister of the Gospel who 
would make it the end of his discourse 
might speak learnedly and usefully, but he 
would not preach. To do this, he should, 
by exposition and appeal to the feelings and 
passions, disgust men's souls with sin and 
enamor them of the sweet yoke of Christ ; 
he should stir them to their lowest depths 
and inmost recesses; he should pull the 
bandage from their eyes and show them, 
with blanched cheek and awe-stricken look, 
the gulf yawning at their feet, the love of 
Him who came to save them from it, the 
death by which He saved them, and the 
bright and endless future which that death 
has secured for them. 

That the movement of the will — not 
merely the instruction of the understand- 
ing — was to be the object of all apostolic 
preaching, is evident from the words our 
divine Lord addressed to His apostles im- 



JJ 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 7 

mediately before He ascended into Heaven : 
"Going therefore teach ye all nations 
Here the word teach is an inadequate trans- 
lation of the Greek word used which 
means not solely to teach, but to make dis- 
ciples by teaching ; that is, to use words of 
fire that will at the same time enlighten and 
inflame, — that will instruct the understand- 
ing and reform the will 

This, too, is the meaning of St. Paul's 
words in his Epistle to the Hebrews: "The 
word of God is living and effectual, and 
more piercing than any two-edged sword: 
and reaching to the division of the soul and 
the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, 
and is a discerner of the thoughts and in- 
tents of the heart. " 

The subject-matter of Preaching is the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is, the whole 
body of revelation, clustered round and 
centering in the Atonement of Calvary. In 
other words, it is the Logos, foreshadowed 
in the Old Law and fully revealed in the 
New; the Logos teaching, saving, govern- 
ing, as Prophet, Priest, and King; the 
Logos as the Way, the Truth and the Life, — 
the Way guiding human conduct by His 



8 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

commandments and counsels, the Truth en- 
lightening the human intellect by the dog- 
mas of revelation, the Life raising men to 
the supernatural state by the Sacraments, 
the Sacrifice of the Mass, and other salutary 
helps. This sublime subject must be taught 
in popular, persuasive language, as its direct 
and primary end is to unite the souls of men 
with Grod through the grace of Jesus Christ. 

There is no true Christian Preaching with- 
out a legitimate mission. "You have not 
chosen me" says our divine Lord, "but I 
have chosen you, that you may go and bear 
fruit, and your fruit may remain." Hence, 
the preaching of those not chosen will bear 
no permanent fruit, though they speak with 
the vigor of the Baptist, with the eloquence 
of Chrysostom. Their words may produce 
a temporary commotion and excitement, 
such as electricity produces in a dead body ; 
but the body remains dead all the same. 
In fact, preaching without a mission is as 
irregular in the religious order, as the ad- 
ministration of Lynch law is in the civil. 

Preaching is an organic function of the 
Church. It is like the Sacraments in this, 
that Christ is the primary and efficient cause 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 9 

or agent of the effect produced, the preach- 
er's office being only secondary and minis- 
terial. St. Paul teaches this truth with 
notable persistence. "Let a man so ac- 
count of us as ministers of Christ and 
the dispensers of the mysteries of God." 
" We are therefore ambassadors for Christ, 
God, as it were, exhorting by us." "Do 
you seek a proof of Christ that speak- 
eth in me!" Indeed, this idea of our teach- 
ing as Christ's ambassadors or representa- 
tives is significanly contained in the Greek 
word used by St. Mark to express our 
divine Lord's commission to the apostles, 
so that the full meaning of the text is : Go 
ye into the whole world, and, as my ambas- 
sadors, teach the Gospel to every creature. 
Still more explicitly Christ Himself conveys 
this important truth in the words : You are 
not tliey who speak: but the Spirit of the 
Father speaketh in you. And elsewhere : He 
that heareth you heareth Me: and he that 
despiseth you despiseth Me. The ambassador 
acts ministerially and is identified with the 
power that sends him : to hear the one is to 
hear the other. 
In preaching, then, the priest stands be- 



10 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

fore his people as the representative, the ex- 
ponent, the voice of Jesus Christ: Gk>d ex- 
horts by him; Christ speaks in him. What 
a sublime dignity, and what an incentive to 
painstaking, adequate preparation ! " What 
would Christ say if He stood here in the 
flesh before this congregation? How would 
He say it? How am I to say the same thing 
so as not to discredit my ministry or Him 
whom I represent?" To every zealous 
priest, these questions will be full of inspira- 
tion. Knowing that "every best gift and 
every perfect gift is from above," he will 
begin his preparation with prayer ; he will 
study his subject thoroughly; his vivid con- 
ception of it will suggest ample illustra- 
tions; he will keep a definite object before 
him, and use every effort to attain it; he 
will be simple, direct, earnest, fearless, as 
Christ Himself would be ; in his delivery, he 
will put aside all thought of self, all timidity, 
all human respect, no matter in whose 
presence he stands; for as ambassador of 
his divine Master, he will teach as one hav- 
ing power, as a workman that needeth not to 
be ashamed, rightly handling the word of 
truth. 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 11 

Some pulpit deliverances that we hear and 
read are not worthy of the name of Christ- 
tian preaching. Here, for example, is a 
sermon on Honest Dealing. The preacher 
is wholly taken up with giving a material 
view of his theme, and makes but a pass- 
ing allusion to its connexion with the super- 
natural life. " Honesty safeguards against 
the penitentiary ; Honesty begets confidence, 
respect and esteem; Honesty is the best 
policy — it brings compound interest/ ' 
These are the points developed ; and to en- 
force them, only the grossest self-interest is 
appealed to. It is safe to say that there is 
scarcely a passage in the whole discourse 
that might not have been delivered by a 
pagan philosopher, if, indeed, he would be 
capable of uttering such commonplace plat- 
itudes. The preacher evidently forgot that 
a minister of the Gospel should preach the 
Gospel and the Gospel only. " Preach the 
Gospel to every creature," is the commis- 
sion given to the apostles and through them 
to every duly appointed pastor of souls. 
We have no divine command to teach 
human philosophy. Ethical discourses are 
useful in their place ; but their place is not 



12 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

the Christian pulpit. I admit that self- 
interest and other natural motives not only 
may, but should, be urged by a preacher as 
secondary incentives to supernatural action. 
But to confine one's self wholly to them and 
thereby imply their sufficiency for the be- 
ginning and development of Christian life 
is a grave mistake involving doctrinal error 
and leading to pernicious practical results. 
Christian doctrine is sometimes explained 
in such a dry, didactic manner, that it ex- 
ercises no influence on the will or spiritual 
nature of the hearer. His acceptance of 
divine truth seems nothing more than a 
purely intellectual act, or, at best, it is only 
that dead faith of which St. James speaks. 
Such discourse is not preaching. Our mis- 
sion is not to enlighten the intellect, while 
we leave the heart festering in sin. By 
virtue of our priesthood we can give back 
life to the dead soul ; and by the obligation 
of our mission we are commanded to do 
so. — Do we fulfill this duty by those vapid, 
pointless generalities which we sometimes 
pass off on our people for sermons? Think 
of the prophet who was told to prophesy to 
the dry bones, and to call the spirit from 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 13 

the four winds to "blow on these slain and 
let them live again, " — think of him, instead 
of fulfilling the divine injunction, discours- 
ing to them on osteology or Babylonian 
history. Yet such violation of duty would 
not be more criminal than is that of a priest 
in charge of souls who leaves them to rot in 
sin while he explains to them the circumin- 
cessio Trinitatis or the communicatio idioma- 
tum. 

Of course, doctrinal instruction has to be 
given to the people. Justus meus ex fide vivit. 
A Christian life is essentially a supernatural 
life, and therefore a life directed by divine 
truth. Now divine truth must be first ap- 
prehended by the intellect before it in- 
fluences the will. All this is undeniable; 
but it proves nothing more than that the 
knowledge of such truth is a necessary con- 
dition of effective preaching. Our divine 
Lord, as I have already intimated, did not 
send His apostles to establish a school of 
philosophy, but a living body of earnest 
men, "doers of the word, and not hearers 
only," — ■ men all whose actions should be 
supernaturalized by divine knowledge per- 
meating their spiritual nature, regulating 



14 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

the operations of all their faculties, and di- 
recting them to the ultimate end of Christian 
life, namely, union through Christ with 
God. 

Wo is unto me, says St. Paul, if I preach 
not the Gospel. But what kind of preach- 
ing fulfills this grave obligation? Is it ful- 
filled by merely talking at random to the 
people on Sundays and holidays! Some 
priests think so; and they talk usque ad 
nauseam,, but they do not preach. Being 
glib of tongue and in no danger of breaking 
down, they never think of making any 
serious preparation for their weekly sermon. 
Before going into the pulpit, they put to- 
gether a few commonplace ideas on the 
G-ospel of the day, or they read over cur- 
sorily some other one's sermon. They then 
begin . They lash themselves into a passion 
for no apparent reason; they beat the air 
with unmeaning gestures; they bellow, 
stamp, overwhelm their hearers with a de- 
luge of high-sounding but senseless words ; 
and when, after much floundering, they 
come to an end, they leave the pulpit with 
the self-satisfied air of men who have de- 
served well of G-od and humanity. But 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 15 

they are not, as they shall one day find out, 
of the seed of those men by whom salvation 
was brought to Israel. They incur the "wo" 
of St. Paul by not preaching the Gospel, 
and they incur that other curse uttered by 
Jeremias against those that do the work of 
the Lord "fraudulenter." 

The people themselves contribute much 
toward the continuance of this kind of 
preaching. They seem to be satisfied with 
it, and sometimes they even applaud it. 
Yet how are they bettered by it? Does it 
check vice among them? Does it make 
them more honest, truthful, pure, charit- 
able? Does it bring them to the Sacra- 
ments? Does it make the home happier, 
more united, more Christian? These quest- 
ions the people never put to themselves; 
and hence no pressure is brought to bear on 
the pastor to make him supply more healthy 
food. Human nature does not take kindly 
to the earnest preparation necessary for 
preaching. It must feel the pressure of 
some external, palpable, material motives 
before it can be kept easily on a high 
level of action. Fear of consequences helps 
to make the priest punctual in attending 



16 Manual of Sacred Ehetoric. 

sick calls : could it not be made to help also 
in persuading him — when persuasion is 
necessary — to prepare his sermons with 
more care and thoroughness? 

The truth is, that the bulk of people pre- 
fer not to be disturbed in their sinful habits. 
They will listen patiently, or at least with- 
out open protest, to any amount of specula- 
tive instruction on matters of doctrine. 
They are interested in controversial sub- 
jects; and they love to hear heresy de- 
nounced in unmeasured terms. They even 
shed tears at pathetic passages of sermons, 
and congratulate the preacher, and they 
seem to flatter themselves that the tears 
and congratulations are manifestations of a 
religious spirit. But that restitution they 
have to make; that lie about a neighbor 
they have to retract ; that vicious habit or 
occasion of sin they do not wish to give up ; 
that sacrilegious confession they have to 
make right : these and other sore spots in 
the conscience they wish the preacher to 
handle lightly. 

Every priest in charge of souls should be 
deeply impressed with the vital importance 
of preaching, as a condition of salvation, 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 17 

not only for his people, but also for himself. 
In God's ordinary providence, sinners take 
the first step toward conversion when they 
hear the truths of the Gospel announced to 
them. And if those truths be not fittingly 
announced and a sinner be lost in con- 
sequence, who — the preacher or the sinner 
— will merit and receive the greater punish- 
ment? 

I do not believe that priets in this country 
are negligent in preparing their sermons; 
yet I presume to think that more abundant 
fruit might be produced, if some of them 
were more self-reliant and original, if they 
collected their matter from theology, 
Scripture, and Church history, rather than 
from foreign sermon books, and also, per- 
haps, if they kept their minds filled with a 
constant supply of fresh spiritual ideas by 
meditation and spiritual reading. The es- 
sential conservatism of the Church inclines 
priests to be conservative also in their 
method of preaching. Yet, non nova sed 
nove, is a sound principle in perfect keeping 
with the usage of all our great preachers 
and writers. The continuity of Catholic 
doctrine does not imply continuity in the 



18 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

manner of presenting it. We are therefore 
free from the traditional mannerisms of the 
European pulpit ; we are justified in break- 
ing off from all foreign methods of preach- 
ing; and, what is more, we are obliged to 
break off from them, that we may adapt 
our mode of announcing the Gospel to the 
peculiar character and the advanced civili- 
zation of our people. 

NOTE. It is unnecessary to tell Catholic readers that 
preaching has been always practised in the Church, as 
one of her most important organic functions. Yet, 
among the traditional misrepresentations which are 
still used to turn honest minds against us is this, that 
preaching fell into disuse in the Middle Ages. "When 
the Church," says Dr. Phelps, "lost its faith in the 
Bible as the only inspired source of knowledge, then 
sacerdotalism took the place of religious teaching, and 
the priesthood became too ignorant or too indolent, or 
both, to become preachers." 

A candid speaker, before making this sweeping state- 
ment to a class of theological students, would have in- 
quired whether we Catholics denied it, and if so, on 
what authority. Let us take the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries as typical of the Middle Ages, and let us turn 
to Alzog's History of the Church, Vol. ii, p. 1033 
(Pabisch and Byrne's translation;; we read as follows : 
"Richard of St. Victor (cir. A. D. 1164), in a sermon 
delivered on Easter Sunday, said that it was not his in- 
tention to instruct his hearers, but simply to recall 
truths and facts to their minds ; because, he added, they 
knew the teaching of Holy Scripture as well as him- 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 



19 



self." Further on Alzog writes : "Among the most emi- 
nent preachers of those times may be reckoned St. Yves 
of Chartres, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildebert of 
Mans, Godfrey of Bordeaux, Guilbert de la Porree, Abe- 
lard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, and many 
more of the Schoolmen, who put aside, for the time, the 
rigorous forms of the schools, and while instructing the 
people, employed language the most simple and the 
best calculated to convey to their minds a clear and in- 
telligible idea of the matter in hand .... As was natural 
in an age when great preachers abounded, there were 
not wanting directions as to the best method of render- 
ing preaching fruitful in good results. Treatises were 
written on the subject by Alanus of Ryssel and Guibert 
of Nogent," etc., etc. 



CHAPTER II. 

Personal Character of the Preacher. 

Moeal character is the foundation of all 
effective preaching. Ancient writers re- 
cognized its necessity for secular oratory. 
Sit ergo nobis, writes Quintilian, orator quern 
instituimus, is qui a M. Catone finitur, vir 
bonus, dicendi peritus . What place, he asks, 
is there for the cultivation of letters or art 
in a mind enslaved by passion? and he 
answers: Non, herele, magis quam frugibus 
in terra, sentibus ac rubis occupata. . . . Non 
igitur unquam malus idem homo et perfectus 
orator. A priest's normal relation to Grod, 
established by sanctifying grace, may be in- 
terrupted in a moment of weakness and re- 
newed afterwards ; but should he once com- 
mit himself seriously in the parish where he 
ministers, no repentance will give back to 
his words the weight they had before his 
fall. When he is most eloquent — makes the 
strongest and most impassioned appeal to 
(20) 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 21 

the will — it will be remembered against him, 
no doubt unjustly, that he did not formerly 
act on his own words ; and the remembrance 
will very much discount the force of his 
pleading. If this be the case with one who 
has done his utmost to repair the past, 
what will it be with him who has made no 
effort to repair it? How can he expect to 
teach effectively truths and duties which, it 
is shrewdly suspected, exercise no influence 
on his own life and conduct? 

Hence, for a priest's words to have due 
influence on his people, he must be respected 
by them, not only for his official position, 
but also for his personal worth as a man 
and a Christian. They must believe im- 
plicitly in his learning, his judgment, his 
sincerity and consistency, his personal holi- 
ness, and his earnest concern for their sal- 
vation. They may applaud a facile, grace- 
ful, sweet-voiced speaker; and, bound by 
the magic of his words, they may be forced 
to weep or smile at his bidding : but when 
he would persuade them to a change" of life, 
to the sacrifice of long-cherished habits — to 
the patient wearing of a crown of thorns — 
they look to the man behind his words, and 



22 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

the final issue generally depends not on what 
he says, but on what he is. We look for 
light and counsel only to honest, unselfish, 
reliable men — men who speak decisively, but 
only from experience and conviction, who 
are incapable of deceiving, whose sterling 
personal worth has passed into a proverb. 

How is such a character to be acquired 
and maintained? Certainly not by hypocrisy. 
The wolf in sheep's clothing, no matter how 
circumspect, is at best a clumsy bungler, 
and betrays himself sooner or later. Dis- 
covery has ever been the end of all double 
lives. Mr. Hyde is invariably identified 
with Dr. Jekyl; and then come collapse, 
shame, scandal, etc. It would, therefore, 
be as silly as it would be sinful to attempt 
to keep up a respectable character before 
the public, while the interior remained 
depraved and vicious. A man's true char- 
acter is revealed more unmistakably in his 
unconscious and spontaneous, than in his 
conscious and studied, actions. No one can 
be always on his guard; and when he is off 
it, natural disposition will break out. The 
more successful he is in his first efforts to 
deceive, the more likely is he afterwards to 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 23 

drop the mask or to be caught grinning be- 
hind it. 

All pretence, then, of piety and sancti- 
moniousness, as a means of establishing a 
reputation, would inevitably end in failure 
and disgrace. But even though it succeeded, 
the hypocritical preacher would gain little 
by it. The self -contempt naturally pro- 
duced by it would, without his knowing it, 
react on his style and delivery, and give a 
hollow ring to his voice, and break that 
magnetic current that ever flows between 
the sincere, earnest speaker and his audi- 
ence. 

No ; there is but one way to gain a lasting 
solid reputation, and it is, to be what you 
appear to be. Personal, interior holiness 
of life must be the living root from 
which those outward actions of yours will 
grow, by which your character with your 
people is to be determined. Our Saviour's 
eighteen years' abode in Nazareth, His forty 
days' retreat in the desert, His prayer in the 
garden, — all teach us this lesson, that to 
draw others to God, we must, first, be our- 
selves united to Him. We must practise 
prayer and self-denial and works of mercy 



24 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

and justice, for our own personal sanctifica- 
tion, before we can duly enforce these 
obligations on others. It is only when we 
do practise them, that we may expect our 
words to be charged with the most abundant 
grace for those who hear them. Then 
alone shall we be best able to blend sweet- 
ness with strength, mercy for the sinner 
with zeal for Grod's honor. Then will our 
people be converted to the heart, when in 
our burning words mercy and truth will 
have met each other; justice and peace will 
have kissed. 

But the personal holiness of the preacher 
will have another effect on his words. It 
will enable him, as nothing else could 
do, to present the familiar truths of re- 
ligion in the fresh, vivid, and attractive 
colors in which daily meditation has clothed 
them in his own soul. His iv ell-ordered 
words ivill be as a honeycomb, sweet to the 
soul, because they will originate in his own 
sweet, habitual converse with his divine 
Master in prayer. The most beautiful as 
well as the most sublime doctrines have 
frequently no energizing influence on our 
people. The defect is not in the doctrines, 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 25 

but in the teacher. He presents them in a 
dry, scholastic form, because he has never 
conceived them spiritually; he possesses 
only an intellectual apprehension of them, 
and he gives all his care to the accurate im- 
press of that apprehension on his hearers. 

Note. Great preachers, who were great chiefly be- 
cause they were men of prayer, never fell into such an 
error. Each divine truth was to them not only an in- 
tellectual light, but, much more, a spiritual force that 
influenced the will by kindling its energies into action. 
It was to them a living reality, invested by the imagina- 
tion with a concrete form ; and it was in this form that 
they presented it to their hearers. See, for example, 
in the following passage, how Newman presents the 
doctrine of the Incarnation : 

"God in the Person of the Word, the Second Person 
of the All-glorious Trinity, humbled Himself to become 
her (Mary's) Son. Non horruisti Virginis uterum, as 
the Church sings, 'Thou didst not disdain the Virgin's 
womb.' He took the substance of His virgin flesh from 
her, and clothed in it He lay within her ; and He bore 
it about with Him after birth, as a sort of badge and 
witness that He, though God, was hers. He was nursed 
and tended by her ; He was suckled by her ; He lay in 
her arms. As time went on, He ministered to her and 
obeyed her. He lived with her for thirty years, in one 
house, with an uninterrupted intercourse, and with 
only the saintly Joseph to share it with Him. She was 
the witness of His growth, of His joys, of His sorrows, 
of His prayers ; she was blest with His smile, with the 
touch of His hand, with the whisper of His affection, 
with the expression of His thoughts and His feelings, 
for that length of time." 



26 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Closely allied to personal holiness, if not 
included in it, is the apostolic spirit, im- 
plying a high estimate of the value of a 
soul, combined with active, untiring zeal 
for its salvation. It is the spirit that filled 
the apostles after Pentecost, the spirit that 
has baptized the world in the blood of mis- 
sionaries. It is the most sublime expres- 
sion of fraternal charity and self-sacrifice, 
for the priest imbued with it is willing to 
become anathema for his brethren. He 
makes himself the servant of all to save all. 
Comfort, ease, pleasure, wealth, esteem — 
all these he sets aside to gain souls to Christ. 
He is a man of one idea, one aim, one life- 
purpose. The world thinks him narrow, 
angular, unmanageable; it sneers at his 
whole-souled earnestness; and it invents 
the silliest theories to account for his 
motives. But he is as indifferent to the 
world's censure as he is to its allurements; 
and he keeps on straight to his object, un- 
daunted by difficulty or failure, because he 
knows that his beloved Master is with him 
and that he is doing His work. 

When such a man preaches, his words 
fall like rain on a thirsting soil ; they bring 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 27 

hope, and repentance, and peace to men's 
souls. Jesus Christ speaks through him, — 
in me loquitur Christus, — and because the 
divine Voice is not impeded by the self -con- 
sciousness or self-seeking of the minister, 
it exercises somewhat of the same sweet, 
irresistible influence as that with which the 
Master taught the multitudes in the fields 
and villages of Galilee. Men come away 
from such a sermon not with empty praise 
of the preacher, of his beautiful language, 
his fine elocution, or his graceful action; — 
all these are forgotten or unobserved in the 
one thought he has left burning in their 
souls, that salvation is the one thing neces- 
sary and the present is the time to secure it. 

Divine truth announced by a preacher of 
apostolic spirit is not minimized or trimmed 
to suit fastidious ears. Hell is eternal fire ; 
and sin is a festering, fetid carcass which 
the sinner carries about with him; and 
temptation is the hot breath of Satan agitat- 
ing the soul. The best surgeon is the one of 
nerve, strong and steady to use the scalpel 
to save, undeterred by the patient's agoniz- 
ing cry to spare. 

No one who would preach the Word fit- 



28 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

tingly and effectively can dispense with art 
and culture in the preparation and delivery 
of his sermon. Yet there are few ordinary 
shortcomings in a preacher which the bulk 
of the people will not either overlook or 
treat with kindly indulgence, if they see 
that he is a man of apostolic zeal, regard- 
less of himself, and absorbed heart and soul 
in their salvation. A drowning man does 
not object to the roughness of the hand 
stretched out to save him. Neither are we 
inclined to be over-nice about the kind of 
fire at which we warm our numbed fingers. 
The soul, too, thirsting after the strong, 
living Glod, will hear His voice in the 
earnest, ringing tones of the man of prayer 
and zeal, though his words be plain and un- 
studied and his intonation inflected accord- 
ing to no artistic rule. He is, no doubt, 
bound to perfect, by patient, industrious 
training, the faculty of speech and to ac- 
quire a mastery of graceful and forcible 
delivery. Besides, after St. Paul, the model 
of all apostolic preachers, he should strive 
to become all things to all men, that he 
may save all. He has a mission to the rich 
and cultured, as well as to the poor and 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 29 

ignorant; and lie should no more disgust 
the former by bad grammar and uncouth 
gestures, than he should daze the latter by 
metaphysical subtleties and Greek quo- 
tations. Undeniable as all this is, it nowise 
modifies the fundamental truth, that zeal is 
the soul of preaching ; and, hence, a priest 
possessed of this one quality will in time 
work his way, consciously or unconsciously, 
to such adequacy of expression and natur- 
alness of delivery as will secure his preach- 
ing from being despised by any one. 

NoTB. Zeal for souls should be so predominant in 
the character of a preacher, as to exclude all unworthy 
motives from the preparation and delivery of his 
sermons. One of those motives is the love of popu- 
larity. Popular preachers are not always those who do 
most good. The immediate end which many of them 
have in view is not the spiritual good of their hearers, 
but rather to please the ear and eye and imagination, 
and to touch the sensibilities. Weeping eyes and wet 
handkerchiefs are the ultimate effect which they attain 
— the principal effect to which they aspire. There is a 
luxury in crying over wickedness in general which 
some people confound with true devotion; and many 
popular preachers encourage the delusion. I do not 
know how they reconcile their consciences with such 
dereliction of duty. They may be in good faith, but, 
de facto, they do not preach the Word of God. 

The influence of preaching is lessened 
very much and sometimes wholly destroyed , 



30 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

when it becomes known that the preacher 
is harsh in exacting pew-rents and stole- 
money, especially if he has at the same time 
earned a character for miserly living and 
disregard of the claims of charity. Our 
people contribute liberally without pressure 
to the decent support of their clergy; and 
few things are more distasteful to them 
than to hear, Sunday after Sunday, in- 
temperate tirades against defaulting pew- 
renters, instead of the exposition of the 
Gospel to which they have a right. High- 
handed measures for collecting church 
monies afford a pretext to many for anti- 
pathy to all Christian teaching, for murmurs 
against the Church and her ministers, and 
for neglect of religious duties. 

A preacher's character should enable him 
to keep in touch and sympathy with the 
men as well as with the women of his 
audience. A local church patronized and 
maintained chiefly by the female sex is 
afflicted with "dry rot," caused to a great 
extent by the weakness of the pastor. He 
is effeminate in his manner, dress and con- 
versation; he preaches lackadaisical ser- 
mons; he is "sweet" in his counsels re- 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 31 

garding the higher life; he is strong on 
Scapulars, Rosaries, new devotions, and, in 
general, on the accidents of religion; but 
on its heart and essence, on Faith, Hope, 
Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and 
Temperance, he has little or nothing to say. 
Men have an involuntary contempt for such 
a preacher. They avoid hearing him when- 
ever they can do so decently. They can- 
not look up to him as their superior in any 
manly quality — not even in good sense ; and 
as to his preaching, they feel instinctively 
that it is not primarily intended for them, 
but for the other sex. Manliness of charac- 
ter, straightforwardness, wide knowledge 
of life, practical sense must characterize 
every preacher who would maintain a 
salutary influence over the male portion of 
his hearers. 

Finally, want of gravity destroys the in- 
fluence of many preachers. Known to make 
light of everything, they are not taken 
seriously even when they intend to be most 
earnest in exhortation or rebuke. People 
cannot understand how men connected so 
intimately as priests are with the sublime 
mysteries of Redemption and dealing every 



32 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

day with the tremendous issues of eternal 
life and eternal death, are capable of habit- 
ual frivolity, of treating life as a "huge 
joke," of playing Merry Andrew in a cas- 
sock. Of course, every healthy-minded 
person, be he priest or layman, must oc- 
casionally unbend and seek relief and rest 
from the strain of serious work. And in 
his moments of relaxation few things are 
better calculated to give elasticity and tone 
to his jaded spirits than an honest, hearty 
laugh. But laughter and gayety in season 
are nowise opposed to the calm seriousness 
that should be a prominent feature of the 
priestly character. Indeed, a bright, cheer- 
ful face and a genial smile and a pleasant 
word for every one win confidence and love 
for a priest even from those who do not be- 
lieve in his ministrations. 

Note. To avoid mistakes that would lessen his in- 
fluence as a preacher, a young priest should be orderly 
in his habits, should take advice before introducing re- 
forms, should be "all eyes and ears, but no tongue" for 
some time after coming to a new mission. Above all, 
he must manifest no likes or dislikes ; he must have no 
favorites ; he must side with no cliques or parties in 
his parish. 



CHAPTER III. 
Mental Equipment. 

In preparing a student for the ministry of 
preaching, I take it for granted that he 
does not intend to preach other people's 
sermons, but is resolved to write and mem- 
orize his own after serious study and medita- 
tion of the subject matter. To do this, his 
mind must be well furnished with general 
and special knowledge, and well developed; 
in other words, he must be a well educated 
gentleman. 

No other profession demands such a 
thorough training of its aspirants as the 
Catholic priesthood. And surely, with seven 
or eight years in a parochial school, six 
years in the Arts' course, and six more in 
the theological seminary, no young priest 
should have reason to be diffident of his 
ability to preach the Grospel worthily to any 
audience. Yet with all the assiduous care 
taken by the Church in training her minis- 
(33) 



34 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

ters, it cannot be denied that some of them 
fall below the level of efficiency in their 
preaching. The cause seems to be, they 
either had not been fully equipped for their 
work in the seminary, or they allow their 
minds to stagnate on the mission from 
neglect of study. 

The mental equipment necessary for a 
young priest to enable him to preach as he 
ought, comprises two things, knowledge 
and development. 

1. Knowledge. If a student who has 
studied diligently to the end of his course 
recognize that he knows very little, but has 
a strong, efficacious desire and purpose to 
keep on enlarging what little he knows, he 
satisfies all that is demanded of him under 
this head. He possesses the three essential 
requirements for mental culture, namely, 
maturity of intellect, humility, and thirst 
for knowledge. Acquaintance with the 
phenomena of nature or history is not know- 
ledge ; neither is the memorizing of theses in 
philosophy or theology. Knowledge of any- 
thing is the intellectual comprehension of 
all that is knowable about it. What is its 
cause? What are its effects? What are its 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 35 

relations to other known things? What are 
its bearings on life? The extent to which 
wo can answer these and other questions re- 
garding facts or truths is the measure of the 
knowledge we have of them. Let a young 
priest fresh from the seminary test his 
knowledge of any thesis in philosophy or 
theology or of any fact of Church history 
by these questions, and I think he will con- 
fess candidly that he has acquired only the 
first essential element of all that the intel- 
lectual and practical knowledge of it com- 
prises. 

Let him ask, for example, how far he has 
studied the bearing of dogmatic theology on 
his own life. Has revelation been to him 
only an illumination of the intellect? or has 
it been also a spiritual light and force, ele- 
vating the will, curbing the passions, and 
conforming and uniting his whole being to 
Grocl? Has the study of the tract de Deo 
Uno et Trino filled him with adoration and 
awe? Has his heart melted in gratitude 
and love, in sorrow and repentance, as he 
read page after page de Incarnatione? Has 
he trembled with fear and prayed earnestly 
for divine help and protection, as moral 



36 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

theology unfolded to him the innumerable 
forms of man's rebellion against the majesty 
of his Creator? If a student has to acknow- 
ledge that he has never studied theology in 
this spiritual, practical light, although he 
knows that it is in this light he shall have 
to preach it to the people, then he must 
admit that, under this consideration alone, — 
the bearing of theology on life, — his know- 
ledge of the sacred science is but one step 
removed from ignorance. 

Yet he should not be discouraged. True 
knowledge is a growth of the soul — a growth 
that is to reach perfection only in eternity. 
As long, then, as we have a thirst for know- 
ledge and give what time we can to satiating 
it, we need not be anxious about the pro- 
gress we make; the after-life will supply 
whatever deficiency may remain. 

It must not be inferred from what I have 
just said, that I undervalue the teaching of 
sacred sciences in our seminaries. It is 
scarcely reasonable to expect a professor to 
become a spiritual director in the class-hall 
and to turn his lectures into meditations. 
The intellectual or scientific acquirement of 
revealed truth is the basis of that spiritual 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 37 

knowledge we should aim at, and is, there- 
fore, absolutely necessary to every minister 
of the Gospel. But he must not confound 
the basis with the structure he has to build 
upon it. — The building must be his own 
work. 

Knowledge of divine truth must be part 
of ourselves before we can impart it fruit- 
fully to others: what we have made our own 
only by the intellect, we can impart only 
to the intellect ; what we have brought home 
to our own conscience and life, — this, and 
this only, we should bring home to the 
conscience and life of our hearer. 

To become an efficient preacher, then, a 
newly ordained priest must have studied 
diligently all the branches of sacred science 
taught in the seminary, and he must be re- 
solved to study them again on the mission, 
but from a more scientific as well as from a 
more practical standpoint, and with a 
special view of realizing their bearing on his 
moral and spiritual life. 

Note). This continuation of ecclesiastical studies is 
practised informally by all priests who keep alive the 
spirit of their priesthood. They take a keen interest 
in the doctrinal and moral questions discussed in our 
clerical Monthlies and Quarterlies, and they speak of 
those questions when they meet their fellow priests. 



38 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

They take notes of obscure Scripture passages and con- 
sult some standard commentary on their meaning. 
They are not content with the summary of Church 
history which they studied in the seminary, but they 
read with avidity what the ablest investigators and 
writers have to say on special questions or represen- 
tative characters. The refining and elevating influence 
of all this reading is increased and spiritualized by the 
practical application they make of it to themselves. 
Such fragmentary reading is useful and praiseworthy 
as far as it goes, although it is not scientific or scholarly. 

2. Development. It is the office of an 
ecclesiastical seminary (in the intellectual 
department) not only to teach a certain 
amount of book-knowledge, but, what is of 
vastly greater importance, to cultivate and 
develop all the mental powers, especially 
those that have the closest and most im- 
portant bearing on the composition and de- 
livery of a sermon. The intellect should 
be trained in the habit of clear, definite 
thought; it should be familiar with the 
principles and forms of logic; it should 
seek and establish order in everything with 
which it deals ; finally, it should select with 
propriety and taste not only matter for 
study but the best authors in which to study 
it. The memory, the imagination, and the 
feelings require similar training, although, 
as far as I know, to the development of the 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 39 

last two little or no direct attention is paid 
in the seminary. 

a) The habit of clear definite thinking 
lies at the root of all adequate expression of 
thought. It is, therefore, the fundamental 
element in the expository part of a sermon 
and in all catechetical instructions. In 
every well educated mind a sharp line is 
drawn between knowledge and ignorance; 
and everything obscure or doubtful or even 
probable is classified with the unknown. 

The vulgar pride of display leads some to 
talk of what they know nothing definitely. 
Hence the habit of rash assertion, of disre- 
gard for exact truth, of wilful deception. I 
do not say that any priest would be influenced 
by such a habit in the pulpit; but should 
people know that "it is his way 7 ' in his 
everyday life, they lose much of their con- 
fidence in his preaching. The same effect 
is produced by those who wish to pass for 
knowing everything knowable. They are 
found out sooner or later, and then their 
influence falls with a crash. 

Mental laziness makes many satisfied 
with fractional knowledge. A student, for 
instance, has an impression that he read 



40 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

somewhere of a pope under cruel pressure 
signing a concordat with some emperor, 
which concordat attempted to give away 
some right or privilege over which the pope 
had no control. The student does not know 
who was the pope, who was the emperor, 
what were the terms of the deed, whether it 
were perfected or not, and in what year and 
under what circumstances the transaction 
took place. He has Alzog's and Parsons' 
works in his library, but he is too lazy to 
consult either of them ; and so he contents 
himself with a blurred impression instead 
of definite knowledge of an important his- 
torical fact. 

b) The principles and forms of logic. 
Some hold that a sermon ought to be a 
syllogism in disguise. If this be so, it is 
evident that a preacher should be intimately 
familiar with the use of this form of ar- 
gument and should know when and how to 
vary it by the substitution of one or other 
of its modifications. But whether we use 
the deductive or the inductive method of 
exposition, practical knowledge of logic and 
masterly skill in the use of it are most de- 
sirable, if not necessary, in every priest. 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 41 

Besides, it is only by our intimate ac- 
quaintance with its principles and rules that 
we shall be able to detect and expose the 
fallacies that underlie all doctrinal error. 
There are now few parishes in this country 
in which honest-minded, truth-seeking men, 
weary of being carried about by every wind 
of doctrine, do not apply to our priests for 
instruction. Hence the grave duty of being 
prepared not only to support the truths of 
Catholic faith by valid arguments, but also 
to point out the weakness of objections 
urged against it. Neither of these can be 
done without practical skill in the art of 
reasoning. 

Note. At the risk of being thought behind the time, 
I venture to say that the old scholastic method of 
teaching was incomparably superior to the shallow one 
now in use, for the purpose of making students exact, 
profound and consecutive in the habit of reasoning. 
The syllogism, like the first element of every art, may 
be easily turned into ridicule ; but the first element has 
to be learned for all that. 

c) Order. The trained intellect always 
works for order — order in its ideas, its judg- 
ments and its reasoning, order in the em- 
ployment of time, order in the arrangement 
of surroundings, — order in everything. This 
habit of order is invaluable to a priest, as it 



42 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

leads him to adopt the best means of utiliz- 
ing odds and ends of time between ministe- 
rial duties. Five minutes may count for 
little in themselves; but by reading the 
Bible consecutively, five minutes daily, the 
whole of the Old Testament would be gone 
through in a year, and in a little over three 
months more, the New Testament also. A 
priest of well-ordered mind has a keen per- 
ception of the value of such uniform work, 
and he does it with steady, resolute per- 
severance. He is a stranger to ennui; he 
has not to take to novel-reading, or to yawn- 
ing his mornings over the newspaper, or to 
paying unnecessary visits, to kill time. He 
finds every day not minutes but hours to 
devote to study or writing, and at the end 
of a year, he has acquired a breadth and 
depth of knowledge and attained an intel- 
lectual and spiritual culture such as his 
neighbor of desultory reading and unorderly 
habits has never dreamt of. 

It may be thought that a studious life is 
incompatible with the active duties of the 
ministry, and that financial worry — the 
cross of most American priests — unfits them 
to apply their minds to any serious system- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 43 

atic reading, On the contrary, the habit of 
of which I speak regulates and perfects the 
discharge of duty, inasmuch as it keeps 
clearly before the mind what is to be done 
and how it is to be done. Besides, most of 
the distress caused by worry comes through 
the confused, dazed way in which people 
look at it and bear it. In trying emergen- 
cies, it is easier to appreciate than to prac- 
tise coolness, self-possession, calm considera- 
tion of "ways and means," and, as a last 
resort, patient endurance; yet it is certain 
that the habit of order in other things will 
help us here also. 

It will help us in another way too, by 
systematizing our reading — making it a con- 
tinuous study of each subject, or, at least, 
of a division of each subject, before we take 
up new matter. Of course, it is all the 
better if a priest so arrange his free time 
that, each day, so much of it will be given 
to Sacred Scripture, so much to theology, 
etc. This arrangement has the advantage 
of variety and is none the less attractive for 
being in line with the daily routine of the 
seminary. Unity or diversity of subject, 
however, for daily reading may be left to 



44 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

each one's choice; the main point is con- 
tinuity — perseverance. To secure this, it is 
most advisable that a young priest should 
begin with short, interesting subjects and 
give to each even less time than he can 
afford and is inclined to give. In this way 
the love of study is whetted and the habit of 
it, as it grows stronger, has room for larger 
development. 

d) Judgment in selection of subjects and 
authors. Common sense ought to make 
every professional man see the necessity of 
becoming proficient in all the knowledge 
essential to his calling, before he takes up 
studies either foreign to it or only remotely 
connected with it. Hence a priest's first 
study ought to be to acquire a thorough 
knowledge of Sacred Scripture, theology, 
Church history, and canon law. It ought, 
indeed, to be his only regular study, be- 
cause the longest life is too short to com- 
plete it. 

"But what of philosophy?" you will ask; 
" what of science? of literature? of current 
history? of local affairs? Is it not the 
duty of the priest, as of every citizen, to 
keep in touch with the thought and action 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 45 

of his day! Is he justified in isolating him- 
self from the multiform life of the world 
around him — he who is appointed to mould 
that life and to direct it to its supernatural 
end?" 

In reply, I say that I am speaking here 
only of the adequate training of the intel- 
lect in seminaries and its results on the 
mission. One of those results should be 
the judicious selection of subjects and 
authors for a systematic course of study 
with a special view to preparation for the 
pulpit. Outside this course much literary 
work remains to be done, as the preceeding 
questions imply; but the scope of this 
chapter does not call for discussion of them 
here. 

Only the best works on the subjects se- 
lected ough to be studied. A young priest 
can easily learn which are those books by 
inquiry of his former professors. A small 
but choice collection of works is much 
better than a large and miscellaneous one, 
as the latter offers too many temptations to 
unsystematic and fragmentary reading. 

e) Memory. "Whatever some psycholo- 
gists tell us to the contrary, we know from 



46 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

experience that a good memory can be 
acquired by assiduous practice. Class- 
exercises and sermons during the seminary 
course would seem not to supply sufficient 
training for this faculty, as the majority of 
young priests undergo positive pain in com- 
mitting to memory what they write for de- 
livery. Hence, many of them soon give up 
the practice of memorizing, except oc- 
casionally when they have to preach a set 
sermon. They find it easier to talk than 
to preach, and, having no cogent stimilus 
to the harder work, they naturally abandon 
it. 

I think students with defective memories 
would be helped very much, if greater ac- 
curacy in the repetition of Scripture texts 
and other quotations were severely enforced 
in seminaries. Besides, such students ought 
to be taken in hand individually; the 
reasons for acquiring a good memory ought 
to be explained to them ; and they ought 
to have daily exercises given them, until 
they can easily remember what they read 
after a few repetitions. 

f) Imagination. This function of the 
soul sometimes seems to work independently 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 47 

of will-control, as in dreams, reveries, dis- 
tractions, etc. When it works in this way, 
it is called the passive imagination. Ascetic 
writers lay down wise rules for the restraint 
of its most troublesome tendency, namely, 
distractions in prayer. If those rules be 
observed faithfully, besides the spiritual be- 
nefits that will be secured, the mind will be 
very much strengthened, and much pre- 
cious time will be saved. It is, however, 
not to the training of the passive, but of 
the active, imagination I wish to direct 
attention here. 

The active, or constructive, imagination 
is the art-faculty of the soul. It is also in- 
dispensible in science for the invention of 
those theories that frequently lead to the 
discovery and establishment of new physi- 
cal laws. Hence it is aesthetic and scient- 
ific, — aesthetic, when its object is the ex- 
pression of the Beautiful, scientific, when 
it is used for the investigation of the True. 
I speak of it here only in its aesthetic 
aspect. 

St. Augustine's theory of preaching is, 
that it should teach, that it should please, 
that it should move; that is, it should teach 



48 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

the intellect by exposition, it should please 
the imagination by illustration, and it 
should move the will by persuasion. For 
the essential purpose of a sermon, it is not 
enough to make a doctrine or duty clear to 
the understanding; it must be made to ap- 
pear also pleasant, attractive, useful, beau- 
tiful ; and this is done chiefly by appeal to 
the imagination. This appeal is made by 
examples, comparisons, analogies, figures, 
etc. ; and its usual literary form is nar- 
ration or description. 

The only formal training of the imagina- 
tion attempted in seminaries, as far as I 
know, is the compositio loci, and application 
of the senses, recommended to students as 
a help to meditation. How faithfully this 
recommendation is carried out, it does not 
belong to me to say, — videant consules ; but 
no mental exercise develops the faculty of 
expression ; and it is expression — style — 
taste that gives the crowning grace and 
beauty to every aesthetic creation or repro- 
duction of the imagination. — I cannot say 
that our young priests show in their first 
sermons any adequate training in the taste- 
ful, finished expression of imaginative con- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 49 

ceptions. They may have learned it years 
ago; but through want of practice they 
seem to have forgotten it. 

g) The feelings. Only men of strong 
feeling can be orators. One who is un- 
moved by sorrow or suffering is incapable 
of moving others to sympathy with it. A 
cold, cynical disposition can no more en- 
kindle enthusiasm than an icicle can warm 
a room. 

Strong feeling is found only in sensitive 
organizations. Its manifestation may be 
repressed by a strong will; but, all the 
same, it cuts into the soul. Sensitiveness, 
however, may become blunted like a knife- 
edge ; and when this happens, not only our 
emotional consciousness is dulled, but our 
power of emotional expression is corres- 
pondingly weakened. Extensive indulgence 
of the appetites, unrefined surroundings, 
egotism and all forms of selfishness — these 
are some of the influences that weaken or 
destroy the strong, keen-edged feelings 
which enter into the equipment of every 
efficient preacher. 

If a young priest try earnestly, by the 
use of what time he can spare, to attain the 



50 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 



knowledge and mental equipment here out- 
lined, his sermons will become year by 
year more effective and fruitful — more 
luminous in exposition and illustration, 
more fervid in their appeal to the feelings, 
more powerful in their influence on the 
will. 




CHAPTER IV. 
Faculty of Expression. 

Speech is the ordinary means by which 
we convey to others what we think and feel. 
It is supplemented and perfected by gesture 
which "includes all significant movements 
of the body and limbs, and the expression 
of the countenance." Hence, speech and 
gesture combine to make up ideal expres- 
sion; and theoretic knowledge of both as 
well as practical skill in their use, is ab- 
solutely necessary for every accomplished 
public speaker. 

1. Speech. The time is now past when 
zeal and necessity excused the use of 
"broken English" in preaching. Every 
workman is supposed to know how to select 
and use the tools of his trade. Words are 
the preacher's tools: he should, therefore, 
have an intimate knowledge of their mean- 
ing, and the correct, scholarly use of them 
should be to him like a second nature. 
(51) 



52 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

The study of the vernacular is, then,, a 
strict duty for all those who aspire to preach 
the Word. Such study is intimately as- 
sociated with the habit of clear thinking and 
a sincere love of truth. If, through mental 
laziness, we content ourselves with vague 
and confused ideas, we cannot see the 
necessity, when we give them expression, 
of choosing among several words of cognate 
meaning any one in preference to the 
others; — we take the first that occurs to us. 
So, too, if we have no care whether or not 
we convey our ideas accurately to others 
whether or not we exaggerate or in any way 
deviate from the truth, — we shall take no 
trouble to select words suited to give clear 
and definite expression to the corresponding 
ideas in our minds. On the other hand, 
one who thinks clearly and speaks as he 
thinks, will so choose his words that they 
will be the exact reflex of his thoughts. 

A preacher is limited in his sermons to 
the vocabulary of his hearers; and even 
from this he must exclude slang as well as 
vulgar words and expressions. The diffi- 
culty of exposition and persuasion is very 
much increased by this limitation. It is 



tot 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 53 

not only necessary to have a clear and 
distinct apprehension of the truths to be 
taught, and to have appropriate words for 
their conveyance ; but those words must be 
intelligible to the particular audience ad- 
dressed . 

To use words correctly in preaching, a 
student or priest must have acquired the 
habit of using them correctly in ordinary 
conversation. Slang and vulgar words are 
odious violations of good taste ; but, worse 
still, their daily use is a serious hindrance 
to extempore discourse. They are the first 
words that will present themselves; and 
while we search for others, more dignified 
and appropriate, we have to pause, or 
stammer, or flounder, until we think of sub- 
stitutes. And even these, in most cases, 
will be found to be as inadequate or as un- 
scholarly as the others were unbecoming. 
So that generally we steer from Scylla to 
be wrecked on Charybdis. 

Worse, perhaps, than slang and vul- 
garisms, are learned and technical words, 
beyond the comprehension of the people. 
The former convey some meaning; the lat- 
ter, none whatsoever. Yet there is no more 



54 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

prevalent fault to be found in sermons than 
the use of such words. Sermon-books, 
both original and translated, abound in 
them, 

ILLUSTRATION. Here are some words met in the first 
three pages of a sermon on Detraction : premeditated, 
indiscriminate y sooth, species, irretrievably, baleful, 
primary, indispensible , votive, accession of circum- 
stances, aggravation. The preacher in this case was 
the more inexcusable, as his audience was made up 
mostly of the poor and uneducated. It is evident that 
with a little trouble he might have found equivalent 
homely terms or phrases to use instead of the foregoing 
words ; and it is certain from his well known zeal that 
he would have done so, had he reflected on the larger 
good he would do thereby. The oratorical instinct 
leads every true preacher to determine unconsciously 
the calibre of his audience and to adapt his words to 
it. But not every one who thinks his sermons worthy 
of publication is gifted with the oratorical instinct. 

Many preachers never reflect that their 
words are beyond the comprehension of 
their audience ; some are too lazy to change 
theological into popular phraseology ; while 
others who try to make the change do not 
succeed on account of their limited voca- 
bulary. Extensive reading and frequent 
writing on doctrinal and moral themes can 
do much to remedy this defect in our ser- 
mons; but reading and writing must be 
supplemented with the study of words in- 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 55 

dividually and in their relations to their 
synonyms and antonyms. 

Every language is a growth, depending 
for its conditions on the growth of the 
nation speaking it. For centuries after the 
Norman Conquest (A. D. 1066), Anglo- 
Saxon, the mother of our present speech? 
was spoken only by the English peasantry 
and yeomanry, the language of the court 
and the nobility being Norman - French, 
mostly made up of Latin words. Political 
events, however, brought the conqueror and 
the conquered more and more closely to- 
gether, until they became blended in one 
strong, self-reliant, independent people. 
This union naturally involved the corres- 
ponding union of the Latin patois of the 
Norman with the original Anglo-Saxon. 
The result was the formation of the English 
language. . Hence, the first notable stage 
in the growth of this language of ours was 
the accession to it, or rather its absorption, 
of a large number of Norman-Latin words. 
Some centuries afterwards, a custom began, 
arising in many cases from necessity, but 
in more from pedantry, of anglicising and 
introducing words directly from the original 



56 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Latin. Thus we have English words taken, 
some directly, some indirectly, from the 
language of ancient Rome ; and even many 
are taken in both ways from the same root. 
Of these latter I give a few examples from 
Trench's "English, Past and Present." 

" Secure and sure, both from the Latin 
securus, but one directly, the other through 
the French; fidelity and fealty, both from 
the Latin fidelis, but one directly, the other 
at second-hand; species and spice, both from 
the Latin species, spices being properly only 
kinds of aromatic drugs; blaspheme and 
blame, both from blasphemare, but blame 
immediately from the French blamer; add 
to these granary and garner; tradition and 
treason;" etc. A fuller list than Trench's 
may be found in Morris's Historical English 
Grammar, p. 5. 

Other languages also have contributed 
some words ; and, within the present cen- 
tury, Greek has been largely drawn on for 
terms of science, art and manufacture. 
Latin, however, has been always the chief 
source from which English has been en- 
riched. 

Now, Norman-French words have been 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 57 

so long incorporated with the spoken lan- 
guage of the people, that a preacher may 
use them freely without much danger of 
obscurity or misunderstanding. But this 
cannot be said of words taken directly either 
from Latin or Greek, unless they be popular 
names for familiar things or ideas. Hence, 
in choosing words for use in the pulpit, it 
is of much advantage to know not only the 
origin, or root, of the word, but also the 
manner of its introduction into the language. 
Some years ago, an impression prevailed 
among preachers, that the dignity of the 
pulpit did not allow the use of homely 
terms, when statelier ones could be found 
to replace them. Those men changed 
fatherly into paternal, brotherly into fra- 
ternal, ash into interrogate, bury into commit 
to earth, etc. Such affectation is now dis- 
carded, if not despised ; and the dignity of 
the pulpit depends chiefly on the earnestness 
of the preacher and the amount of spiritual 
good his preaching confers on the people. 
Besides, a homely word of reputable stand- 
ing differs widely from a vulgar one. There 
is no sacrifice of the laws of diction or of 
good taste in the use of words "perfumed 



58 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

with home associations." "Saxon deriva- 
tives," writes Genung (Practical Rhetoric, 
p. 44), u constitute the foundation of the 
language. Being the earliest words, they 
stand for the primitive ideas : they are the 
words of the family and the home and the 
everyday relations of life. They are 
therefore the natural terms for common in- 
tercourse, for simple and direct emotions, 
for strong and hearty sentiments. Saxon 
is especially the language of strength ; and 
its short words, and sturdy sounds join 
well with its homely meanings to give it 
impress and cogency." 

A preacher should never be led by vulgar 
usage to employ words in a sense not given 
them by good writers. Nice, splendid, fine, 
guess, with many others, have each a pre- 
cise meaning, and this alone should be 
attached to them. Nothing in English 
composition or speech evinces culture and 
scholarship more than taste and accuracy 
in the selection and use of words. 

It may not be amiss here to give a few 
suggestions on the arrangement of words 
in sentences. 

Simple sentences, being the most direct 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 59 

and the most easily understood, are the best 
suited for preaching. However, to give 
variety as well as smoothness to style, they 
should be intermixed with sentences of 
other kinds. These should be short, and, 
if complex, not more than one subordinate 
conjunction should be used. Few things 
are so bewildering to an audience as to hear 
a long sentence with dependent clauses in- 
troduced by if when, although, whereas, 
nevertheless, etc. 

Compound sentences are made up of two 
or more simple sentences joined by coor- 
dinate conjunctions (and, or, but, therefore). 
They are not much used in popular con- 
versation, and therefore should be intro- 
duced sparingly into sermons. Besides, if 
they contain several members, they tire the 
attention of the hearer and probably pre- 
judice him against the preacher. In refer- 
ence to attention, the following words of 
Herbert Spencer convey a useful lesson: 
U A reader or listener has at each moment 
but a limited amount of mental power avail- 
able. To recognize and interpret the sym- 
bols presented to him requires part of this 
power ; to arrange and combine the images 



60 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

suggested requires a further part ; and only 
that part which remains can be used for 
realizing the thought conveyed. Hence, 
the more time and attention it takes to re- 
ceive and understand each sentence, the less 
time and attention can be given to the con- 
tained idea-, and the less vividly will that 
idea be conceived." 

Keeping this principle in mind, we should 
reflect, before using lengthy complex or 
compound sentences, how much mental 
power for absorbing our ideas will be left 
to the audience, after they have expended 
the necessary amount on the interpretation 
of our words and on the arrangement and 
combination of images produced by them. 

To acquire a free, easy style adapted to 
the pulpit, a student should read much, and 
he should write much. 

a) As to reading for style, he should 
attend more to the form than to the matter. 
His chief study must be to find, not what 
the author says, but how he says it. Hence, 
the reading of newspapers and novels is 
rarely of any service in the literary culture 
of young people. They look directly and 
primarily for news to the former and for 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 61 

the denouement of the plot to the latter; 
and in neither case do they take any serious 
note of the diction or the style of what they 
read. 

Even students who have gone through a 
full course of rhetoric should read the mat- 
ter again with the view of adapting its prin- 
ciples and rules to the composition of a 
sermon. It would add very much to the 
utility of this reading to study in connexion 
with it some classical works exemplifying 
the different forms of prose composition, — 
description, narration, exposition, argumen- 
tation and persuasion. 

Note. Narration relates events; description pour- 
trays objects ; exposition analyzes truths ; argumen- 
tation proves them; persuasion aims at embodying them 
in action. No literary work is written exclusively in 
any of these forms ; but as a composition uses one or 
other of them principally, it is called narrative or 
expository, argumentative or persuasive. All five 
forms are used in preaching ; although, as we shall see 
hereafter, the argumentative is not to be used in an 
ordinary Sunday sermon. 

b) Writing. Caput est quamplurimum 
scribere, is a well known saying of Quintil- 
ian. Rules and suggestions for preaching 
are useless, unless they are put in practice ; 
and this is done by frequent writing. Origi- 



62 Manual of Sacred Blietoric, 

nal composition is the exercise of a certain 
creative power with which every human 
soul is endowed. It is the only road to 
literary perfection; and without it, there 
can be little effective preaching. There 
are, no doubt, fluent speakers who do not 
write; but fluency is not eloquence; and 
unless young priests write for a consider- 
able time after their ordination, there may 
be brilliant passages, but there will be no 
artistic finish or beauty, in their discourse. 
It will lack dignity, self-restraint, matured 
thought, measured expression ; it will run 
into tiresome digressions, and be too de- 
tailed in some parts, too meagre in others. 

It is most important that the habit of 
frequent, if not daily, writing should be 
kept up by ecclesiastical students while 
reading philosophy and theology. Perhaps 
no easier or more useful means for doing 
this could be found than to write a para- 
phrase of a chapter of the Bible every day. 

The training of the voice is a necessary 
condition of all effective speech. A harsh, 
grating, unmusical voice spoils the delivery 
of the most eloquent words. It pains an 
audience to listen to it ; and they will not 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 63 

listen to it when they can decently avoid 
it. The human voice in its normal state is 
clear, musical, expressive; but, like all 
divine gifts, it must not be neglected or 
abused. Any practice known to be in- 
jurious to it ought to be abandoned. Ha- 
bitual excess in any external form tells on 
it very quickly, destroying that full, rich 
resonance which gives it its sweetness and 
expressiveness. 

Singing is an important help to voice de- 
velopment. Hence, the class of sacred 
chant in the seminary should not be shirked, 
as it sometimes is, on the plea of no time, 
no voice, no ear or taste for music. The 
exercise of the vocal organs, no matter how 
imperfectly performed, will gradually de- 
velop their flexibility and will produce that 
purity and fulness of tone in the pronunci- 
ation of the vowels which is so essential in 
all impressive and emotional speech. 

A more systematic training of the voice 
than singing consists in daily exercises in 
the two general divisions of elocution; 
namely, orthoepy, or the mechanical element, 
and expression, or the spiritual element. 

Orthoepy treats of articulation, syllabi- 



64 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

cation and accent. Articulation gives their 
proper sounds to vowels and consonants ; 
syllabication regulates the distinct utterance 
of syllables ; while accent is the special stress 
or force given to a syllable in a pollysyllabic 
word. 

Note. Violations of orthoepy are unfortunately 
sometimes committed in the pulpit. Alt' is heard for 
and, vide for wide, virchoo for virtue; so also, 
extr'orn'ry for extraordinary, miserable for miserable, 
etc. 

Expression is taken here to mean the per- 
fect vocal conveyance of thought and feel- 
ing. Its agencies are: emphasis, inflection, 
modulation, slur, monotone, personation, 
and pauses. As it does not fall within the 
scope of this work to teach the principles 
of elocution, I will not occupy the reader's 
time by explaining these different elements 
of vocal expression. Any standard treatise 
on the art of speaking will give the student 
all necessary information about them ; but 
he must remember, that the fullest know- 
ledge of the principles and rules of elocution 
is useless without practice. For this a 
teacher is almost a necessity, as it is very 
difficult to learn from books alone how 
most of the excercises are to be performed. 



Manual oj Sacred Rhetoric. 65 

Still practise by one's self can do much, if 
it be slow, regular, and graduated. The 
mere effort to vary the voice according to 
the laws of expression, even though un- 
successful, is a step toward perfection. 

2. Gesture. There is no good preaching 
without gesture. It is as necessary to a 
sermon as correct pronunciation, emphasis, 
or modulation. It should be natural, grace- 
ful, appropriate, and, above all, Un- 
conscious. In ideal gesture, the movement 
of the hand or other member should be as 
little attended to as the movement of the 
breath or the action of the vocal organs. 
Hence, gesture ought to be practised every 
day until it becomes a second nature. But 
by what standard of gesture is the young 
preacher to be guided? Delsarte's system 
seems to be the best, because it is the least 
conventional and is the only one, as far as 
I know, that is grounded on the natural 
laws of expression. We must, however, 
distinguish carefully between the funda- 
mental principles of Delsarte's theory and 
their development by his disciples. More- 
over, it is necessary to remember that those 
principles were intended as a basis for 



66 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

music and the drama as well as for oratory ; 
much judgment is, therefore, required to 
adapt them wisely for the guidance of 
bodily motion and expression in preaching. 

Physical exercise is as important as the 
study of gesture to acquire that easy, grace- 
ful movement of the body, so necessary for 
good delivery. Walking and dumb-bell 
practice are the two most useful forms in 
which physical exercise can be taken. A 
good walker is always a graceful walker; 
and it will be to the young preacher's ad- 
vantage to study and imitate his poise and 
carriage. Dumb-bell practice gives freedom, 
suppleness and grace to the movements of 
the arms and torso. It should be per- 
formed regularly, and the bells used should 
be light, as the object to be attained is not 
to acquire the muscular development of a 
prizefighter. This exercise, however, should 
be backed up with the practice of using the 
hands and arms gracefully. In the pulpit 
these members will move with ease and 
propriety or stifly and awkwardly, just as 
we have previously trained them by as- 
siduous practice. 

Until a young preacher feels confident 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 67 

that he has mastered any particular form of 
gesture — concentric, eccentric, normal — 
he should not attempt to use it in the pul- 
pit. It is much better to be natural and 
earnest until, without conscious effort, he 
can be something better. 

The study of gesture and of elocution 
generally has a tendency to make one's 
manner in the pulpit appear self-conscious 
and affected. Even some preachers have 
the bad taste of delivering their sermons 
with tricks and movements belonging to 
the stage. They start back ; crouch in fear ; 
spring up in rage, — reminding one forcibly 
of an immemorial street performance in 
which the domestic troubles of a married 
couple are represented. They profane the 
pulpit who preach to win applause — to 
gratify personal vanity. What a contrast 
between them striking theatrical attitudes 
and St. Ambrose, thrilled with the Spirit of 
Grod, preaching that sermon which con- 
verted the young Manichean rhetorician 
into the greatest of the church Fathers! 
But apart from the few who make the pulpit 
subservient to unworthy ends, there are 
many earnest, wholesouled young preachers 



68 Manual of Sacred Ehetoric. 

who like them appear to preach "for effect" 
by the self-consciousness and artificiality of 
their gestures. These must bear in mind 
that perfection in preaching is attained only 
by slow growth: hence they should observe 
the good old maxim, — Jestina lente. They 
should also practise assiduously in private 
the ordinary gestures appropriate to the 
pulpit; but until they can perform them 
naturally, gracefully, and spontaneously, it 
will be wisest for them to confine them- 
selves, while preaching, to the impromptu 
movements which their earnest words and 
their ardent zeal for souls will suggest. 

Students can gain much practical know- 
ledge of elocution and delivery from listen- 
ing to eminent preachers and orators, and 
noting carefully the unconscious grace 
and propriety of their gestures, their dis- 
tinct articulation, their perfect inflection 
and modulation of voice, with the other 
details that go to make up an accomplished 
speaker. Indeed, few things would be of 
greater advantage to seminarians than to 
hear such men from time to time in the 
seminary halls. 



CHAPTER V. 
Systematic Teaching of Religion. 

As I have already said, the subject of all 
Christian preaching is, directly or indirect- 
ly, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. 1 
judged not myself, says St. Paul writing to 
the Corinthians, to know anything among 
you , but Jesus Christ; and Him crucified. 
And St. John in the Apocalypse: I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, 
saith the Lord God, who is and who ivas, and 
who is to come, the Almighty. 

The Church leaves her ministers free to 
choose their own method of treating this 
subject. If they select for their theme 
some revealed doctrine or duty, the method 
is called topical. If they take the Gospel 
or Epistle and expound and apply it verse 
after verse, their discourse is called a 
homily and the method homiletic. Finally, 
the catechetical method is the systematic 
teaching of religion according to the order 
of the catechism or of theology. 
(69) 



70 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

I prefer this last method, partly because 
it is the only one of the three that is scien- 
tific, and partly because it is the only one 
suited to the exigencies of Catholics in this 
country. This latter reason needs some ex- 
planation. 

Our American Catholic laity have in our 
time an opportunity of doing apostolic 
work on a grander scale and with more 
hopeful prospects of influencing the desti- 
nies of the human race than any other 
people in any other time or country since 
the establishment of the Church. 

What is this opportunity? It is, first of 
all, the opportunity of example, — of show- 
ing their fellow citizens, by daily life and 
conduct, the beauty, the consistency, the 
truth and happiness of practical Catholic 
faith. Americans of all religious denomi- 
nations are sick of mere lip- worship, of 
hollow forms and shams, of whited sepul- 
chres. They crave for a religion of the 
heart, grounded on a solid basis of truth ; 
and they wait to see it preached, not in 
words alone, but in actions, — sincere, uni- 
form, unpretentious actions, — to embrace 
and practise it themselves. Now the Cath- 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 71 

olic Church here in America supplies such a 
religion; but the preaching of it to out- 
siders is entrusted by divine Providence 
chiefly to the laity, not from the conven- 
tional pulpit, but in the home, in the work- 
shop, in the railway-car, — in every place of 
social and business intercourse. Wherever 
there is a Catholic layman, there is a Cath- 
olic pulpit, from which an influence may go 
out, more potent for good and wider in its 
sphere than much of our formal preaching. 
Our laity has another opportunity inti- 
mately connected with this just mentioned. 
It is to give an intelligent, satisfactory ac- 
count of their faith to sincere inquirers. 
Outsiders have traditional prejudices against 
us, supported by misunderstandings and 
misrepresentations. Many of them wonder 
how such an accumulation of idolatry, 
superstition, craft, duplicity, etc., as they 
think us, can have held together so long. 
But, side by side with those prejudices, is a 
suspicion, a dread, that after all we may be 
in the right. They know well how easy it 
is to start a falsehood, and how hard it is to 
stop it in its mischievous course. May not 
all they have been hearing about Catholics 



72 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

since their childhood be such a falsehood? 
At least, they think it worth their while to 
inquire; and they will inquire, if they are 
acquainted with a practical Catholic whose 
truth and honesty and sterling worth have 
won for him confidence and respect with all 
who know him. And that inquiry implies 
not only the working of divine grace in 
those men's souls; but it implies also a 
special economy of divine Providence, by 
which their conversion and salvation are 
made to depend very much on the ability of 
that Catholic layman to give them a satis- 
factory explanation of the teaching of the 
Church. This he will be able to do only by 
following closely a continuous, systematic 
course of sermons on Christian faith and 
duty. Hence the necessity of the American 
pastor giving such a course. 

The conditions of American social life, 
then, seem to demand that Catholics be in- 
structed systematically in their religion. 
The advanced education of the people de- 
mands the same. Theology, as the scien- 
tific development of faith, is, in its incep- 
tion and progress, the work of the Holy 
Spirit, intended to meet a natural, legiti- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 73 

mate craving of the educated intellect. The 
same craving exists in the popular Ameri- 
can mind; and, to satisfy it, we are clearly 
bound to systematize and connect in a 
definite, consistent, beautiful whole our 
doctrinal and moral teaching of the people. 
This is particularly necessary for those 
business people who have precise, well- 
arranged ideas on other matters, and who 
feel real pain not to have similar ideas on 
religion. They are themselves much to 
blame for their bewilderment, because they 
do not give to their spiritual interests any 
of that serious thought, of that patient 
study which they devote to their ledger and 
bank-book. Yet the pastor is not wholly 
blameless who does not give those men a 
comprehensive grasp of the essential means 
of salvation. Our divine Lord on many 
occasions condensed into a few words "the 
whole law and the prophets. " We shall 
produce much more abundant fruit than we 
do, if we imitate Him in this as well as in 
other characteristics of His teaching. 

The Third Council of Baltimore earnestly 
advises priests "to give a connected and 
thorough presentation of Christian doctrine 



74 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

either in the order of the Roman Catechism, 
or in that of the catechism of the diocese, 
or of any approved author. 7 ' The fathers 
of the council did not wish to interfere with 
the liberty of preachers by imposing on 
them any formal precept regarding the 
choice or sequence of subjects; yet, for all 
zealous priests, the united exhortation of 
their bishops assembled in synod will have 
the directive influence of a law, especially 
when the exhortation results from intimate 
knowledge of the requirements of the 
people. 

Note. I admit freely that the homily on the Sun- 
day Gospel or Epistle was the most ancient form of 
preaching. It is also in stricter accordance with the 
spirit of the liturgy than either the topical or the cate- 
chetical sermon. But neither its antiquity nor its 
greater harmony with the public prayer of the Church 
can at all weigh against the exigencies of modern 
Catholic life. Besides, in the early and medieval ages 
of the Church, — in fact, down to the German-English 
revolt of the sixteenth century, — the mysteries of faith 
were taught not by preaching alone, but by the language 
of symbols, not during half an hour once a week, but 
by magnificent ceremonial celebrations, frequently 
continued through several days. In those times, in 
addition to the fifty-two Sundays of the year, nearly 
forty festivals, with their vigils and octaves, were cele- 
brated, not to commemorate but to represent the mys- 
teries and effects of Redemption. In our days, on the 
contrary, when symbolic religious teaching is no Ion- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 75 

ger the powerful agency it was, its place must be sup- 
plied by some other means ; and no other seems so 
fitting or practicable as the systematic course of ser- 
mons here recommended. 

At the outset of this course, we should 
inspire our people with deep reverence and 
with filial confidence, obedience and love 
toward the Church which we represent in 
the pulpit. We should explain to them 
clearly and forcibly, that it is an active, or- 
ganic, divinely endowed being that has 
been living and working in the world since 
Jesus Christ called it into • existence, and 
shall continue to live on and to work on to 
the end of time ; that it saw Him its Creator 
in the flesh, witnessed His miracles, listened 
to His teaching, stood by at His death, con- 
versed with Him after His Resurrection, 
gazed in awe at His divine Person ascending 
into Heaven, We should make a rapid sur- 
vey of its action on the human race after its 
baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire on the 
day of Pentecost ; its conflict with Judaism, 
paganism, philosophy; its victory over the 
Roman empire — the world's stronghold of 
error; its conversion of the savage hordes 
that swept down on southern Europe in the 
fifth and succeeding centuries ; its formation 



76 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

of Christian society; its struggle with error 
and passion from Luther's revolt down to 
the present day. We should bring out 
clearly the identity of the Catholic priest 
with that world-wide, undying, theandric 
creation of Grod for the regeneration and 
salvation of the human race. Its commis- 
sion to teach and save is his commission ; 
its authority is his authority. He can say 
with truth: "The Catholic Church that I 
represent and whose voice I am, is the 
divinely appointed teacher of the nations, 
and her message of salvation all are bound 
to hear. — That message I now deliver to 
you. He that hears her, speaking by her 
accredited minister, hears Jesus Christ ; and 
he that despises her, while so speaking, 
despises Him whose commission she dis- 
charges.' 7 

Note;. It does not follow from what is said here, 
that a pastor, teaching his people, is infallible in all he 
teaches. He may misunderstand, or exaggerate, or 
minimize, or even falsify the doctrines of revelation ; 
but if he do so, consciously or unconsciously, he 
does not, as far as he leads others into error, represent 
either Jesus Christ or His Church. Yet, notwithstand- 
ing this possibility, the people can have no prudent 
doubt that he is a faithful exponent of divine revela- 
tion, as long as he is delegated to preach by his bishop, 
who himself is in communion with the vicar of Christ 
the supreme and infallible head of the Church. 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 77 

When a pastor has made clear to his 
people his delegated authority to teach them 
all things necessary for salvation, he should 
in his next sermon give a summary of thos.e 
things in the order of the catechism. This 
summary should itself be often summarized 
throughout the course, so that the relation 
of each truth or duty explained to the 
whole body of revelation may be easily com- 
prehended. 

In the first series of sermons on Christian 
doctrine, clearness, brevity, progressive 
movement, freshness of presentment and, 
above all, unction should give a growing 
interest to our words as we proceed. Hence, 
minute details should be reserved for the 
next series. Each sermon should glow with 
fervent sentiments springing from our 
spiritual conception of the theme. Much 
solid instruction must be conveyed, of 
course-, but it must be conveyed in an 
emotional, rather than in an intellectual, 
form. Unmoved ourselves, we may speak 
fluently, without moving others, of the at- 
tributes of Glod, of the Incarnation, of the 
Sacraments; but if we bring them home to 
ourselves as living, present realities, if we 



78 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

set them side by side with those other 
realities that press upon our physical and 
social life, such as light, air, food, home, 
friends, etc., we must be filled with amaze- 
ment and awe, with fear vanishing into 
ecstasy, somewhat like men, introduced 
blindfolded into a gorgeous palace, when 
the bandage is taken from their eyes and 
they gaze on the undreamt magnificence 
around them. So should we feel and with 
such feeling should we speak the revealed 
truths we announce. After hearing us, the 
people should go away so enraptured with 
the majesty and power and goodness of 
God, with the wealth of grace offered them 
in the Sacraments, with the ineffable bliss 
in store for them, that, for the time being 
at least, the human interests of fife would 
be pushed far into the background, sin would 
be unbearable, and the vision of faith would 
appear the only source of true happiness. 

Note. By frequent repetitions, allusions and dis- 
gressions, in our sermons we ought to make our hearers 
familiar with the real though invisible world of faith 
in which we live. Justus metis ex fide vivit. Life in 
its fullness is scarcely possible without contact and 
familiarity with its surroundings. 

After the first course of sermons on the 
catechism has been preached, a pastor will 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 79 

go over the same ground, giving fuller de- 
tails of doctrine and duty, explaining and 
refuting popular objections, and especially 
animating the audience to a higher standard 
of Christian living corresponding to the 
brighter vision of faith which they receive. 
When divine truth is thus systematically 
explained in a setting of appropriate senti- 
ments, affections and resolutions, it irradi- 
ates the soul of the listener, satisfies his 
spiritual longings, and brings him nearer to 
his Saviour. It gives him, too, a deep 
practical interest in the promotion of Cath- 
olic missions, in the spread of Catholic liter- 
ature, in the triumph of Catholic truth. He 
defends religion with modesty, but also 
with confidence and zeal, whenever he 
hears it misrepresented or insulted. Un- 
like so many of our people who scarcely 
come in contact with the Church except in 
the Sunday Mass and the paschal Com- 
munion, this man shares to the fullest in 
her world-wide life and work; his heart 
beats in unison with hers in her triumphs 
as in her sufferings, in her head as in her 
members, in her mission to the South Sea 
Islander as in her ministry at home in his 
native parish. 



CHAPTER VI. 
Definite Object of Sermon. 

A lawyer pleading for a prisoner has a 
definite object in view, — to persuade the 
jury to return a verdict of "Not guilty. " 
Every word in his address, every argument, 
every motive, every appeal to the feelings, 
every gesture, every inflection and intona- 
tion of the voice, — all are confined to this 
one object and directed by it. 

So too, a party orator, at election time, 
in his speech to a meeting of citizens, has 
one clear, distinct object in view, — to gain 
their votes. He does not fatigue them with 
a dissertation on political economy ; he does 
not ramble into side issues ; he does not use 
learned words or balanced sentences; nor 
does he pose as a professor of elocution ; he 
places himself in speech and manner on a 
level with his hearers, enters into their 
thoughts and feelings, takes advantage of 
their weaknesses, coaxes, flatters, rouses, 
entreats, —in a word, leaves no stone un- 
(80) 



. Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 81 

turned to secure them effectually for his 
party. 

Even in everyday life, in the ordinary in- 
tercourse of man with man, whenever 
speech is used for the purpose of persua- 
sion, there is of necessity before the speak- 
er's mind one definite, practical, central ob- 
ject, which he is resolved to achieve by 
clear, earnest, cumulative reasoning com- 
bined with all the varied resources with 
which eloquence moves the will to action. 
No useless word is spoken ; there is no list- 
lessness or apathy of manner; — nothing but 
intense, concentrated, impassioned earnest- 
ness. 

As it is with the lawyer, the party orator, 
— everyone who would persuade another, — 
so should it be with a preacher of the 
Word. His direct, conscious aim, even be- 
fore he selects or studies his theme, ought 
to be to bring home some distinct spiritual 
good to his hearers. To do this ought to 
be his primary end in preaching, — an end 
to which everything in his sermon should 
be conducive and secondary. To talk from 
the pulpit without zeal and without prepara- 
tion, solely because it is one's turn to 



82 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

preach ; to memorize and deliver some bril- 
liant passages in a setting of commonplaces, 
for the admiration of a few cultured people 
in the congregation ; to translate arguments 
and answers to objections from Perrone or 
Hurter, and deliver them over the heads of 
the people : — none of these performances 
has any title to be called preaching. They 
may, perhaps, instruct, and even please; 
but they do not move, — at least, in the 
direction of spiritual action, — because the 
preacher has before his mind no definite 
practical end to which he would guide and 
urge his hearers. As I have already said, 
preaching is essentially a persuasive popu- 
lar discourse; and to be persuasive, it must 
use every available means to move the will 
to take some onward step toward salvation. 
This onward step, by which each sermon is 
individualized, is what I understand by the 
definite object. 

In a doctrinal sermon, the definite object 
is the spiritual impression of some revealed 
truth. A child listening to an explanation 
of the Seventh Commandment with its 
hand in another child's pocket stealing 
whatever it finds there, has no spiritual im- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 83 

pression made on it by the speaker's words. 
Its conscience is not touched. It does not 
make the knowledge it receives personal, 
regulative, corrective. So, too, doctrinal 
knowledge must not be merely intellectual 
and impersonal. It must touch the heart 
and conscience ; it must cause remorse for 
sin and dissatisfaction with one's self on 
account of it, if not repentance ; it must be 
even for a hardened sinner a bright vision 
of a higher life which he contrasts in sad- 
ness with the groveling life he is leading. 

It is difficult to stamp on the soul this 
spiritual impression of dogmas and mys- 
teries ; nay, it is not only difficult but im- 
possible, if the preacher be not a spiritual 
man. But if he meditate on them for his 
own profit, and if he live habitually in the 
higher sphere of which they are the light 
and atmosphere, with earnest preparation 
he may confidently hope that the ' Holy 
Spirit will supply whatever his words may 
be too weak to impart. The broken ex- 
pressions of a soul, awe-stricken, believing, 
adoring, loving, in the presence of some un- 
fathomable mystery, will do more spiritual 
good than the most learned disquisitions of 
theology on the subject. 



84 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

The definite object of a moral sermon 
will usually be some particular practical re- 
solution regarding Christian duty, — the ac- 
quisition of some virtue, the avoidance of 
some vice, the fulfillment of some precept, 
the practice of some special devotion. A 
resolution is practical when it is adapted to 
the person on whom it is urged. It should 
not require extraordinary graces for its ful- 
fillment ; and it should not seek to raise one 
to a perfection foreign to one's state. Faith, 
hope, charity, prayer, religion, prudence, 
justice, fortitude and temperance, — these 
with the vices opposed to them supply an 
abundant source of practical resolutions for 
all classes. 

It is not enough, however, that a reso- 
lution, to be the definite object of a sermon, 
be practical ; it should also be particular ; 
that is, it should not extend to all the 
offices of a virtue or to all the branches 
of a vice, but confine itself to one, so that 
it may be kept by the uniform repetition or 
omission of the same act. 

The object aimed at in a sermon may be 
definite in either of two ways, it may be ex- 
plicitly enunciated, explained, and enforced ; 
or it may be a conclusion which the 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 85 

preacher leaves to be drawn by the audience 
from well established premises. In other 
words, the object of a sermon may be ex- 
plicitly or implicitly definite ; but in either 
case, the preacher must have clearly and 
explicitly before his mind what impression 
he intends to produce. I am convinced 
that, as a general rule, the definite object 
ought to be, not a conclusion left to the 
hearers to draw, but a conclusion drawn 
for them, formally announced to them, and 
explained and enforced with apostolic direct- 
ness. The only exception to this rule that 
I would admit is the rare case in which an 
audience is wholly averse to the adoption of 
the definite object; so much so, indeed, 
that the preacher deems it useless, if not 
harmful, to propose it. What is to be 
done? Simply to lead such an audience by 
reasoning and persuasion to a practical con- 
clusion in which the definite object aimed 
at is logically contained. Leave reason 
illumined by divine grace to do the rest. 

Note. Of course, it is supposed that the audience 
is in good faith, or, at least, is not aware of the gravity 
of some obligation which has to be pointed out to 
them. The obligation of severing connection with cer- 
tain secret societies may be given as an example. 



86 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Although the definite object should in- 
fluence every part of a sermon, yet it 
should not be announced formally until the 
preacher feels sure of its acceptance. How- 
ever open to persuasion, men do not take 
kindly to coercion in any form, especially 
to coercion of the will. "Should," 
"ought," "must," and words of similar im- 
port drive the mind instinctively into an 
attitude of resistance, and should therefore 
be very sparingly used. 

A definite object kept steadily before the 
mind will save the preacher from the not 
unusual mistake of exhorting his hearers to 
take various resolutions in the same ser- 
mon. If he persuade them effectively to 
take one resolution, he has done all that 
should be done ; and if he attempt more he 
is doomed to certain disappointment. There 
is waste of energy not only in crowding all 
the precepts of the Decalogue into one ser- 
mon; but also in trying within the same 
space to enforce all the duties comprised in 
the full observance of any one virtue. 

Although the definite object should in- 
fluence every part of a sermon, its influence 
should be generally indirect rather than 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 87 

direct. It should make the introduction 
attractive and interesting, the exposition 
and illustration not only clear and lumi- 
nous, but suffused with emotion, and the 
conclusion fervid, impassioned, practical, 
irresistible. It is primarily not an an- 
nouncement to be made to the audience, 
but a guide to the preacher in what he is to 
announce and how he is to announce it. 
While, then, his thoughts and their ar- 
rangement are to be regulated by it, there 
is no need of frequently interrupting their 
sequence by giving it formal expression. 
Yet the deepening emotion excited in the 
progress of his discourse should become to- 
wards the end more and more suggestive 
of the definite object. 

It is not always easy for a preacher to 
overcome the temptation of introducing 
some brilliant rhetorical passage, illustra- 
tive or emotional, that may, indeed, be 
suggested by his theme, but does not run 
in the direction of the definite object. 
Singleness of purpose, zeal for souls, and a 
keen sense of responsibility will save the 
preacher from this temptation. The wan- 
dering eye takes uncertain aim; and the 



88 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

priest largely influenced by human motives 
in preaching will seldom impress a practical 
resolution on the minds of his hearers. He 
will please and, perhaps, try to convince, 
because his self-seeking view could not 
otherwise be satisfied ; but his effort to per- 
suade will be slight and ineffectual, because 
other objects of greater import engage his 
attention. 

Note. I do not object to secondary human motives 
in preaching, provided they support higher motives for 
the attainment of the definite object. But motives that 
make a preacher shrink from minute details, from 
strong direct language when necessary, and from 
apostolic earnestness as bad form, — such motives can- 
not be too severely condemned. 

A preacher may not think formally of the 
definite object and yet he will seek to attain 
it if he earnestly endeavor to make his 
words spiritually helpful to his hearers. In 
this case, however, there is a danger that 
having determined on no practical issue at 
the beginning of his sermon, he will 
through most of it talk vague, pointless 
generalities ; and when he comes to make a 
special application to conduct of the matter 
he has expounded, he will find that much 
of it has little or no bearing on the resolu- 
tion he desires to urge. Besides, he is 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 89 

liable to propose not one but several definite 
objects, thereby overtaxing his hearers' 
attention and dissipating his own available 
energies. I find many sermons, otherwise 
eloquent, wanting in unity and pointedness 
of application, and in every instance I can 
trace the reason of the want to the absence 
of a definite object. 

Illustration. I open the first sermon-book that 
comes to hand and without much trouble I find the 
following conclusion of a sermon on the Mission of the 
Holy Ghost: "Let us, then, to-day, on this glorious 
feast of His manifestation, be renewed in our devotion 
to the Holy Ghost; let us henceforth carefully avoid 
all that could grieve this Spirit of love, and especially 
all impurity, whether in thought, word, or deed — this 
sin which most of all defiles His sacred temple — and 
let us invoke Him in all our necessities. Thus He will 
continue to dwell in our hearts, adorn them with His 
virtues and gifts in this life, and in union with the 
Father and the Son, will be the source and the object 
of our eternal happiness. Amen." Here the avoidance 
of impurity in thought, word, or deed is the definite 
object, which is supposed to be attained by the exposi- 
tion of two truths : 1. The mission of the Holy Ghost 
in general ; 2. His special mission on the feast of Pen- 
tecost. A glance through the sermon shows that the 
preacher neither in setting out nor in the development 
of his subject had any idea of turning his hearers from 
impurity. He gives a dry, cold, learned disquisition 
on the Third Divine Person, and then, apparently for 
form's sake, tags to it a moral exhortation. This is not 
preaching. 



90 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

I regard this close adherence to a definite 
object of such vital importance, that I quote 
here at some length the words said about it 
by the greatest ecclesiastical writer of this 
century. In his lecture on University 
Preaching, Cardinal Newman says: 

"As a marksman aims at the target and its bull's- 
eye, and at nothing else, so the preacher must have a 
definite point before him, which he has to hit. So 
much is contained for his direction in this simple 
maxim, that duly to enter into it and use it is half the 
battle; and if he mastered nothing else, still if he 
really mastered as much as this, he would know all 
that was imperative for the due discharge of his office. 

"For what is the conduct of men who have one ob- 
ject definitely before them, and one only? Why, that 
whatever be their skill, whatever their resources, 
greater or less, to its attainment all their efforts are 
simply, spontaneously, visibly, directed. This cuts off 
a number of questions sometimes asked about preach- 
ing, and extinguishes a number of anxieties 

We ask questions perhaps about diction, elocution, 
rhetorical power ; but does the commander of a besieg- 
ing force dream of holiday displays, reviews, mock 
engagements, feats of strength, or trials of skill, such 
as would be graceful and suitable on a parade ground 
when a foreigner was to be received and feted; or does 
he aim at one and one thing only, viz., to take the 
strong place? Display dissipates the energy, which for 
the object in view needs to be concentrated and con- 
densed. We have no reason to suppose that the Divine 
blessing follows the lead of human accomplishments. 
Indeed, St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, who made 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 91 

much of such advantages of nature, contrasts the per- 
suasive words of human wisdom 'with the showing of 
the Spirit,' and tells us, that 'the kingdom of God is 
not in speech, but in power.' 
************ 

"On these grounds I would go on to lay down a pre- 
cept, which I trust is not extravagant, when allowance 
is made for the preciseness and the point which are 
unavoidable in all categorical statements upon matters 
of conduct. It is, that preachers should neglect every- 
thing whatever besides devotion to their one object, 
and earnestness in pursuing it, till they in some good 
measure attain to these requisites. Talent, logic, 
learning, words, manner, voice, action, all are required 
for the perfection of a preacher ; but 'one thing is 
necessary,' — an intense perception and appreciation 
of the end for which he preaches, and that is, to be the 
minister of some definite spiritual good to those who 
hear him. Who could wish to be more eloquent, more 
powerful, more successful than the Teacher of the 
Nations? yet who more earnest, who more natural, who 
more unstudied, who more self- forgetting than He?" 



■s 




CHAPTER VII. 
Form of a Sermon. 

The form of a sermon may signify the 
arrangement of thought in it, or the style 
most suitable to express that thought ap- 
propriately. Hence in this chapter I will 
treat summarily of (1) the arrangement 
and (2) the style of a sermon. 

1. A sermon, like all other forms of dis- 
course, has three main elements, the intro- 
duction, the body, and the conclusion. To 
follow out the idea of growth which, as I have 
already stated, is essential to every sermon, 
the introduction corresponds with the root 
of a tree, while the body and the conclusion 
correspond with the trunk and the ripened 
fruit. In other words, the main thought is 
announced in the introduction ; it is devel- 
oped in the body of the sermon ; and it is 
applied for the guidance of life or conduct 
in the conclusion. 

This organic unity, essential as it is, does 
not always characterize sermons that we 
(92) 



Manual of Sacred Elietoric 93 

hear or read. Frequently the parts Have 
but slight cohesion, and even that seems 
forced and factitious. The reason seems to 
be, that training in logical clearness and 
sequence of thought is not considered a 
necessary preparation for preaching. The 
undisciplined mind takes the bit between 
the teeth and carries us out of the straight 
course into thickets and quagmires, or, at 
best, into by-ways of thought; and when 
we return exhausted, we find that it is time 
to conclude, although we have supplied 
little or no basis on which a practical reso- 
lution can be grounded. 

Note. The ordinary Sunday sermon, well prepared 
and delivered, produces more than the spiritual effect 
directly intended ; it has besides an educational value 
in the mental training of our people and in the ever in- 
creasing store of knowledge supplied by it. We may 
have no mission to teach purely intellectual truth ; but 
we have a mission to develop, refine, and elevate the 
intellect by teaching revealed truth in such an orderly, 
suggestive, and inspiring manner that the soul will be 
raised by it to the highest plane of thought, and the 
purpose and relations of the universe will be seen with 
a fullness, a clearness, a eertainty beyond the reach of 
human science. 

As I shall speak hereafter in detail on 
each of the main elements of a sermon, I 
will give here only a few general principles 



94 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

regarding them. The introduction usually 
bears the relation of contrast to the body 
of the sermon. If this be the development 
of a general truth, that is some particular 
fact, example, illustration, or parable, con- 
taining it in concrete form. On the other 
hand, if the body of the sermon treat of 
some particular duty — a precept of the 
Decalogue or a Sacrament — the introduc- 
tion will be a general statement giving the 
class to which the duty belongs. 

Illustkation. Bourdaloue in his sermon 
on the Character of Grace, begins by ex- 
plaining the words of our Lord to the Sa- 
maritan woman: If thou didst know the gift 
of God. "This gift of God which the Sa- 
maritan woman did not know is the grace 
of God — a precious gift which we do not 
know, or care to know, sufficiently. Hence 
it is, that we often receive it in vain. It is, 
then, important that I should give you a 
just idea of it; and this is what I will en- 
deavor to do in the present discourse." 

The same preacher begins his sermon on 
Idleness (a particular vice) with the general 
statement: "There are three kinds of justice 
which God may exercise toward us: vin- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 95 

dicative justice; legal justice; distributive 
justice. Of this last I will not speak. The 
vindicative justice of God repairs man's sin 
by labor ; it is also by labor that His legal 
justice regulates all the states and condi- 
tions of life. Idleness is opposed to this 
two-fold justice. " 

The soul must see before it acts ; and as 
action (external or internal — the definite 
object) is the end of every sermon, it is 
essential that we should show the nature, 
necessity, advantages of what we urge be- 
fore we can expect any result from our 
preaching. The body of the sermon is 
taken up with this explanation, or exposi- 
tion. Unlike other forms of exposition, 
this must appeal to the whole soul, not to 
the understanding alone. Its end is not to 
make the soul see; but to make it, through 
seeing, to determine on some line of action 
that we point out and urge. Hence exposi- 
tion must be persuasive, that is, it must not 
only enlighten the soul, but it must inter- 
est, attract, and move it. This may not 
seem practicable in definitions and divisi- 
ons ; but even these may be given with such 
clearness and simplicity, with such earnest- 



96 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

ness and wealth of illustration, that they 
will arouse absorbing interest in our theme 
and prepare the way for the motives by 
which the soul is more immediately in- 
fluenced. 

The persuasive element in the body of a 
sermon will be ineffectual unless the 
preacher keeps constantly looking into the 
soul of his audience, noting its movements, 
and adapting his words to them, by repeti- 
tion or fuller illustration of what has been 
already said or by passing on to another 
branch of the theme. This habit of keep- 
ing in touch with the soul of an audience 
is one of the surest signs of the oratorical 
instinct. Yet, though it comes not by 
nature, it may be acquired, — as indeed may 
everything else necessary for the preaching 
of the Word, — by zeal and earnestness. 

The conclusion of a sermon sums up what 
has been said in the course of it, applies it 
to the regulation of life or conduct, and en- 
forces the application by a last appeal to 
the feelings or the will. The only general 
remark to be made on this part of a dis- 
course is, that the application of the truth 
expounded should be obvious. The soul is 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 97 

moved only by what it sees ; and if it does 
not see the connection between the truth 
and the practical resolution grounded on it, 
the sermon will bear no fruit. 

2. As to the style, or verbal form of a 
sermon, something has been said already; 
but a few additional remarks will not be 
out of place here. 

Conversation is the ideal of all written 
prose composition. We speak to be under- 
stood by others ; and we write to be under- v 
stood by others. The end, then, being the 
same, the essential means should also be 
the same. This is particularly true of com- 
position intended for delivery. The people 
expect us to speak to them the honest con- 
victions that regulate our own lives; and 
they expect us to speak those convictions in 
a direct, simple, energetic way, not from 
book or manuscript, but with the fulness of 
divine knowledge with which they credit 
us. 

The form of composition, then, required 
in a sermon is the conversational. What is 
implied in this? First of all: clear, simple, 
idiomatic language, — diction, phraseology, 
forms of sentences, — familiar to the people. 



98 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

The thought we have to convey is difficult 
enough: let us not make it more difficult by 
using long, learned words. Our people do 
not balance their phrases or clauses, nor do 
they speak in periods or well rounded sen- 
tences ; let us, then, avoid all such artificial 
forms of speech. 

NOTE. "The dignity of the pulpit" is often pleaded 
as an excuse for the use of bookish terms and phrases. 
This implies that homely words and idioms are un- 
dignified, or, at least, unbecoming the pulpit. I can 
find no trace of this doctrine in our divine Lord's dis- 
courses or in the preaching of His apostles. Neither 
do I find it in the practice of apostolic men. Take for 
example St. Bernard. Although a good latinist, to 
make himself understood, he did not hesitate to use the 
following barbarous terms : Abarricanus, galabrinum, 
grangia, isembrunum, maneries, palefridus, etc. As I 
take it for granted that a priest is an educated, refined 
gentleman, it is unnecessary to mention that he should 
never use slang or vulgarisms. 

The conversational style suited to a ser- 
mon implies, in the second place, that the 
thought conveyed should be, as far as pos- 
sible, simple and direct. The teaching con- 
tained in the Catechism includes everything 
necessary to be known in order to be saved. 
— Do not go outside the Catechism, then, 
for your subjects. Define, develop, illus- 
trate, enforce those you find there, and you 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 99 

will have ample field for the exercise of the 
highest oratorical powers. Let your teach- 
ing be direct; that is, go straight to the 
pith of your subject, keep close to first 
principles, draw a sharp separating line 
between essentials and non-essentials, pre- 
cepts and counsels, certain and uncertain 
obligations. There is a tendency to ex- 
aggeration in most preachers which, con- 
fined within its proper limits, is not only 
allowable but useful, as it suffuses abstract 
truth with feeling and emotion. When 
that tendency, however, leads a preacher to 
raise a pious belief into a dogma of faith, 
or to extend the limits of a defined dogma 
without warrant, or to insist on works of 
supererogation as if they were of precept, — 
it then becomes a source of grave injury if 
not of ruin to the audience. 

Thirdly, the conversational style of a ser- 
mon requires that we speak to the thoughts, 
difficulties, doubts, objections, that are agi- 
tating the minds of our hearers as they 
listen to our words. They have no oppor- 
tunity of giving expression to what they 
think or feel; therefore we must divine it 
either from what our thought naturally and 

L.cfC. 



100 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 



obviously suggests or from the expressions 
of the faces around us. 

Illustkation. In his " Discourses to 
Mixed Congregations" Cardinal Newman 
frequently interrupts the onward movement 
of his thought to answer objections likely 
to occur to the minds of his hearers. Some- 
times, when he wishes to make his answer 
particularly emphatic, especially if it be a 
division of his discourse, he amplifies the 
objection and puts it in as strong language 
as an adversary could wish. We have the 
following example of this in his discourse 
on the Mystery of Divine Condescension: 

"And now that I have set before you, my 
brethren, in human language, some of the 
attributes of the Adorable G-od, perhaps 
you are tempted to complain that, instead 
of winning you to the All-glorious and All- 
good, I have but repelled you from Him. 
You are tempted to exclaim, — He is so far 
above us that the thought of Him does but 
frighten me ; I cannot believe that He cares 
for me. I believe firmly that He is infinite 
perfection; and I love that perfection, not 
so much indeed as I could wish, still in my 
measure I love it .for its own sake, and I 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 101 

wish to love it above all things, and I well 
understand that there is no creature but 
must love it in its measure, unless he has 
fallen from grace. But there are two feel- 
ings, which, alas, I have a difficulty in en- 
tertaining; I believe and I love, but with- 
out fervor, without keenness, because my 
heart is not kindled by hope, nor subdued 
and melted with gratitude. Hope and 
gratitude I wish to have, and have not ; I 
know that He is loving towards all His 
works, but how am I to believe that He 
gives to me personally a thought, and cares 
for me for my own sake? I am beneath 
His love ; He looks at me as an atom in a 
vast universe. He acts by general laws, 
and if He is kind to me it is, not for my 
sake, but because it is according to His 
nature to be kind. And hence it is that I 
am drawn over to sinful man with an in- 
tenser affection than to my glorious Maker. 
Kings and great men upon earth, when 
they appear in public, are not content with 
a mere display of their splendor, they 
show themselves as well as their glories; 
they look around them ; they notice indi- 
viduals ; they have a kind eye, or a courteous 



102 Manned of Sacred Rhetoric. 

gesture, or an open hand, for all who come 
near them. They scatter among the crowd 
the largess of their smiles and of their 
words. And then men go home, and tell 
their friends, and treasure up to their latest 
day, how that so great a personage took 
notice of them, or of a child of theirs, or 
accepted a present at their hand, or gave 
expression to some sentiment, without 
point in itself, but precious as addressed to 
them. Thus does my fellow-man engage 
and win me ; but there is a gulf between me 
and my great God. I shall fall back on 
myself, and grovel in my nothingness, till 
He looks down from heaven, till He calls 
me, till He takes interest in me. It is a 
want in my nature to have one who can 
weep with me, and rejoice with me, and in 
a way minister to me ; and this would be 
presumption in me, and worse, to hope to 
find in the Infinite and Eternal God." 

A fourth requisite of conversational style 
is frequent repetition of an important 
thought, not only to make sure of driving 
it home, but also to give it time when 
driven home to settle in the mind. I will 
treat on this very important requisite in a 
future chapter. 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 103 

Fifthly, the interrogative form of sen- 
tence is frequently used in animated con- 
versation: it should, therefore, characterize 
the style of a sermon. Interrogation is of 
two kinds, literal and figurative. The for- 
mer expects an answer, the latter does not, 
but rather gives force to a statement or as- 
sertion. This figurative kind is generally 
used in a series of sentences arranged in 
climactic order. It is very effective when 
there is a real climax of thought ; otherwise 
it becomes mere declamation. For this 
reason, fluent speakers have to use it with 
great caution. 

Example from Father Burke's sermon on "Our Cath- 
olic Young Men:' 

"Now, my friends, if America cannot go on without 
intelligence and manhood and energy, I ask you, is it 
not the interest of America to see who it is that can 

supply her most intelligence and most energy ? 

Will it do for America to have her young men infidels? 
laughing and scoffing at all religion? laughing and 
scoffing at the idea of the immortality of the soul of 
man, of eternal reward in Heaven, of eternal punish- 
ment in Hell? Will this do for America? If the mer- 
chants and the statesmen, the governors and the 
magistrates, and the workingmen of this land are to 
become infidels, if they are to lose all faith by reading 
bad, infidel books, if they are to laugh at the idea of a 
future state of punishment or reward, are they likely to 
be honester men for this? Is the national property 



104 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

safer in their hands ? Are they likely to be better mer- 
chants, more reliable, more trustworthy? Tell me — 
suppose you have to deal with two men, and you want 
to intrust your money to one of them ; and one told 
you there was no devil, no hell, nor heaven, and that 
he very much questioned if there was a God, for he has 
been reading in his youth bad books, which completely 
upset his faith ; and the other told you that he believed 
in God, and heaven, and hell, and said : 'I believe, my- 
self, that I shall be in heaven or hell for all eternity — 
I believe I shall be in one place or the other, according 
to the way I behave myself in the world ;' to which of 
these young men would you intrust your money? 
Would you give your money to the fellow that told 
you: 'I don't believe in anything; if I choose to rob 
you, there is no hell to punish me ;' or to the man who 
said : 'I believe in God, and that, if I rob you of your 
money I shall go to hell for it.'?" 

In conversation, an incident is best told 
in dramatic form ; that is, instead of giving 
in our own words the substance of some- 
thing said, we personate the speaker, giving 
his words and representing his manner and 
action as faithfully as possible. The imita- 
tion of manner and action would, of course, 
be out of place in the pulpit ; but the dra- 
matic style of composition gives much 
liveliness to a narrative, relieves the hearer's 
mental strain, and disposes him to give 
closer attention to the thought illustrated or 
enforced. 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 105 

The conversational style of a sermon does 
not exclude figurative language; on the 
contrary, when the thought is emotional or 
impassioned, figurative language is its only 
natural form of expression. Even the un- 
educated become figurative under the in- 
fluence of strong feeling. It need not be 
feared, then, that the conversational style 
will prevent the preacher from attempting 
those lofty flights of oratorical expression, 
supposed by many to be the surest test of 
" eloquence. " What it does forbid, though, 
is the bad taste of using the figurative 
language of high- wrought feeling to express 
plain, passionless thought. 

A last recommendation to a young 
preacher: If you find it difficult to adopt 
the conversational style in writing your ser- 
mons, imagine you have one of your 
audience before you. Think what you 
would say to him, and how you would say 
it: 1) to make him understand the matter 
about which you speak to him; 2) to give 
him time to turn it over in his mind; 3) to 
interest him in it; 4) to answer his objec- 
tions; 5) to enlist his feelings; 6) to in- 
fluence his will; and 7) to carry it, as it 



106 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

were, by storm, by persuading him to ac- 
cept the practical resolution which was your 
definite object throughout. Write down as 
nearly as possible what you would thus say 
to your imaginary hearer, and your sermon 
will be well written. There may be some 
words to change, some expression to soften 
or strengthen, some redundancies to re- 
trench; but the style in the main will be 
appropriate and substantially correct. 




CHAPTER VIII. 
Introduction. 

In the last chapter I gave a general view 
of the primary elements or a sermon, namely, 
the introduction, the body, and the conclu- 
sion. I now come to speak of each of these 
in detail. 

The object of the Introduction is to pre- 
pare the audience for the development of the 
theme. It comes first in the order of de- 
livery, but not of composition. It is not 
advisable to arrange or write this part of a 
sermon until the matter of the other parts 
has been collected and put in order. Those 
who disregard this recommendation will 
usually find that their introductions intro- 
duce nothing definite, but rather suggest 
various vistas of thought that are apt to 
tempt them away from the line of develop- 
ment they intended to follow. Some preach- 
ers go so far as to write the body and even 
the conclusion of their sermons before they 
(107) 



108 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

write the introduction. Cicero says of his 
own practice: Quod primum est dicendum, 
postremum soleo cogitare. Nam si quando id 
primum invenire volui, nullum mihi occurrit, 
nisi exile ant nugatorium aut vulgare atque 
commune. And Quintilian adds: Non ideo 
tamen, eos probaverim, qui scribendum quoque 
proemium novissime putant. In this matter, 
however, of writing the introduction before 
or after the composition of the rest of the 
sermon, the preacher's own experience will 
be his best guide. 

In a normal sermon the Introduction be- 
gins with a text of Scripture. This form of 
beginning dates back to the time — the fourth 
century — when the homily gave place to the 
topical or the catechetical sermon. The 
principles of oratory laid down by Aristotle 
and expounded and amplified by Cicero and 
Quintilian were then enlisted in the service 
of religion; and have ever since been fol- 
lowed by our greatest preachers . A primary 
demand of those principles is unity of 
thought — design — object in a sermon; and 
the text is intended to be the condensed ex- 
pression of that unity. Besides, it gives 
satisfaction to the hearer to be reminded by 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 109 

a well chosen text, that Catholic faith is un- 
changeable — the same in the twentieth cen- 
tury as in the first, ever the one unvaried 
revelation of the Spirit of Grod. 

Note:. A Catholic preacher needs no ' 'credentials to 
his flock," except the authorization, or mission, of his 
ecclesiastical superior. Even though he did need it, a 
text of Scripture could in no sense supply it. Hence, 
it is unaccountable how a Catholic writer, treating of 
this matter, says : "In opening our sermon with a pas- 
sage from Holy Writ, we, as it were, present our cre- 
dentials to our flock, and proclaim our right to speak 
as the ambassadors of Him whose word it is, whilst at 
the same time we secure for ourselves and our discourse 
an amount of reverent attention which no mere words 
of ours could possibly gain." The truth is, that non- 
Catholics, having no ecclesiastical mission to preach, 
find a convenient substitute in a Bible text. Hence, to 
be consistent, they must allow to all who can quote one 
the right to speak as the ambassadors of Christ. On 
the contrary, the Catholic Church has her credentials 
to preach from the lips of our Saviour Himself. You 
have not chosen me, He says : but I have chosen you; and 
have appointed you , that you should go, and should bring 
forth fruit; and your fruit should remain. Because of 
this divine mission, coming through apostolic succes- 
sion from Jesus Christ, our preachers have never re- 
cognized any necessity of beginning their sermons with 
passages from Holy Writ. The Fathers often preached 
without them; and in our own time many eminent 
Catholic preachers do not use them. 

A text should be brief ; otherwise it will 
not be remembered and might almost as 



110 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

well be omitted. Sometimes passages of 
considerable length are read from the Bible 
at the beginning of a sermon ; but they can- 
not be regarded as texts, however useful 
they may be as introductions. 

The meaning of a text should be easily 
understood by the audience. Moreover, the 
thought conveyed by it should stimulate in- 
terest in the theme and its development. 

Another characteristic of a text is its 
appropriateness. It should easily suggest the 
line of thought to be followed by the 
preacher. "When a process of reasoning is 
required to connect the text with its develop- 
ment and practical application, the audience 
will soon forget both the text and the connec- 
tion. As a rule, therefore, it is not advisable 
to use for the opening of a sermon a Scrip- 
ture passage in a factitious sense (in sensu 
accomniodatitio) not intended by the inspired 
writer. Non-Catholic preachers who feel 
bound always to preach from a text have in- 
vented what are called "motto-texts" for 
sermons on such unbiblical themes as strikes, 
picnics, sewing circles, etc. I cannot con- 
ceive a Catholic priest using the inspired 
Word in such an unworthy fashion. In the 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. Ill 

first place, he is under no obligation to be- 
gin sermons on those or similar topics with 
Scripture quotations; and, secondly, his 
theme on all such occasions is a particular 
aspect of some virtue or vice for which 
abundance of texts can be found. 

Note). Dr. Phelps, in his "Theory of Preaching," 
approves of motto-texts, although he severely condemns 
the Fathers for their allegorical interpretations. Ac- 
cording to him, a converted shoeblack may laudably 
preach to a crowd of strikers from the motto-text, 
'•Strike hands" (Prov. XXII. 26), but St. Gregory the 
Great might not use the parable of the Talents to en- 
force a moral lesson. The following are his ungracious 
and unscholarly words : "3d. Observe, thirdly, the 
Romish corruption of the custom of employing texts. 
In this period of the history of the custom several 
things are noticeable. The allegorical principles of in- 
terpretation applied to the Scriptures by Origen and 
others alter him destroyed the legitimate force of the 
custom. It destroyed logical connection between text 
and homily." The Fathers, as well as the Church in 
all times, have used allegorical application of Sacred 
Scripture for illustrative — not for argumentative — pur- 
poses; but this was done by inspired writers them- 
selves. (See Heb. xiii. 5 and II Cor. viii. 5.) 

The text should be repeated occasionally- 
through the sermon, that it may be im- 
pressed on the memory. For the same 
reason, it would be well to introduce it in 
the conclusion and as near the end as pos- 
sible. Some endeavor to finish every ser- 



112 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

mon with it ; but this gives an artificial tone 
to the peroration, and is, moreover, soon 
noticed as a mannerism. 

In a moral sermon, the text chosen snould 
be, as far as possible, one suffused with emo- 
tion. This kind of text awakens interest 
more than any other. It has, also, an in- 
spiring effect on the preacher himself, and 
gives a ring of earnestness to his voice and 
words, which is in itself a better introduction 
than any set form of words. 

After announcing the text, the preacher 
usually explains it, and in doing so deduces 
his theme, or the view of his subject he in- 
tends to take. This time-honored form of 
introduction, stereotyped by immemorial 
usage, is simple, easy and natural ; but it is 
apt to appear dull and commonplace when 
uniformly used by a pastor Sunday after 
Sunday all the year round. Besides, as a 
text is not essential to a sermo-n, its explana- 
tion cannot be essential to the introduction. 
A preacher, then, is at full liberty to lead up 
to his theme in whatever way he thinks 
best. 

Cicero tells us that the oratorical Introduc- 
tion (Exordium) should make the hearers 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 113 

well-disposed, attentive, and inclined to 
learn, — oenevolos, attentos, dociles. Kindly 
feeling, attention and docility may be gen- 
erally presumed in a Catholic audience. 
Hence, in an ordinary sermon, the introduc- 
tion makes no reference to these dispositions, 
nor should it, in my opinion, dwell on the 
importance of the theme to be developed. 
Our people are sure to realize its importance, 
if we treat it competently ; if we do not, it is 
useless to bespeak their attention in the in- 
troduction. Indeed, as a rule which covers 
even "set sermons/ 7 the elaborate exordium 
of former times is something distasteful to 
our American people. In their own speech 
they are direct and outspoken ; and they ex- 
pect those who address them on vital, and 
especially on religious, interests to be equally 
straightforward. 

Besides the normal introduction spoken 
of already, many others are used by preach- 
ers. I will say a few words about those I 
deem the most important. 

I. The logical introduction. This is 
grounded on the principle, that all teaching 
should advance from the known to the un- 
known. Hence we begin our sermon with a 



114 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

brief statement of something admitted by 
the audience, and we then proceed to ex- 
pound and apply something else logically 
connected with it which the audience do not 
know or do not fully realize. For example, 
if the theme of a sermon be the crime and 
misery of a soul that abuses the grace of 
God, we may lead up to it by describing an 
abuse of authority and position in some 
public official ; he is dismissed in disgrace, 
reduced to penury, unable to work, ashamed 
to beg, despised and cast off by his former 
friends. — Life is a stewardship and at its 
close we shall have to account for our ad- 
ministration of the goods connected with it. 
These are of two kinds, natural and super- 
natural. Both will enter into the judgment 
of each man after death; but his heaviest 
responsibility will be for the latter — for all 
those supernatural gifts which are comprised 
under the name of divine grace. The crime, 
the misery, the blank despair of an official 
convicted of systematic dishonesty in the 
discharge of his duties, are but a faint 
shadow of the state of a soul convicted after 
death of abusing G-od's most precious gifts. 
As concrete facts are better known than re- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 115 

vealed truths, it follows that the logical in- 
troduction generally consists of some in- 
cident, example, or parable, suggestive of 
the theme to be expounded. Hence there 
should be a relation of contrast between this 
introduction and the body of a discourse. 
When the latter is the exposition and ap- 
plication of some doctrine, the former 
should be a concrete fact leading up to it ; 
while, on the other hand, if facts, objects, 
persons, character, mental states and ex- 
periences form the substance of the dis- 
course, they are best ushered in by some 
general, self-evident truth, of which the 
facts, objects, etc., may be considered de- 
finitive or illustrative. 

Example. No thought is hidden from Thee. (Job, 
xlii. 2.) "The holy man Job has expressed a truth 
which we, as well as he, must acknowledge, namely, 
that there is no thought which is hidden or unknown 
to God ; and therefore, also, it was that Job, although 
he seemed to possess peace of conscience, turned to 
God, in order that God might point out to him and re- 
mind him of what, without his knowledge, he might be 
guilty. Make me know my crimes and offences. So, 
also, must we proceed when we prepare for confession." 
(On Examination of Conscience. Sermons from the 
Flemish, vol. 5.) 

2 . The Introduction by insinuation. This 
leads up to the theme in a circuitous, in- 



116 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

direct way ; because if the doctrine or duty 
to be developed and enforced were presented 
directly, it would stir up prejudices in the 
audience that would hinder its adequate 
consideration. This form of introduction, 
therefore, implies a particular kind of theme, 
namely, such as runs counter to natural 
feeling or acquired antipathies or, perhaps, 
to some sinful habit which people, for one 
reason or another, think not sinful at all, 
or, at least, not as sinful as it is in reality. 
Whether, in such circumstances, we 
should use this indirect method of introduc- 
ing our theme, or should rather follow the 
outspoken directness of apostolic men, de- 
pends very much, if not wholly, on the 
ability of the preacher. If he combine the 
talent of luminous and forcible exposition 
with the rarer and higher gift of persuasion, 
the latter course seems preferable ; but if he 
distrust his powers of convincing and per- 
suading, having reason to fear that a direct 
introduction of an unpopular theme will ex- 
cite the audience to an attitude of opposi- 
tion that no after effort of his will be able 
to change, then his only course is to use the 
introduction by insinuation. However, it 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 117 

will be found that very few sermons require 
such roundabout form of opening. The 
loyalty of our people to the Church may be 
relied on to bear the pressure of most un- 
palatable truths on their preconceived no- 
tions and material interests. 

This exordium is used also to excuse any 
apparent presumption there may be in a 
preacher undertaking to deal with a theme 
beyond his ability, or in his succeeding 
some popular preacher in the charge of a 
parish. While all protestations of self- 
abasement in the pulpit are odious viola- 
tions of good taste, a sincere expression of 
diffidence in one's powers, modestly worded 
and delivered, have a charm in them to 
silence hostile criticism and to win the re- 
spectful attention of an audience. 

NOTE. I have said already that a preacher can gen- 
erally presume on the good will and attention of a 
Catholic audience. He must be careful, however, not 
to overstrain these dispositions. This is sometimes 
done by introducing a sermon with a scathing denun- 
ciation of defaulting pew-renters. A priest must speak 
plainly from time to time on the duty of the people to 
support their pastors ; but it is best to do so in the form 
of an ordinary sermon from which all personal feelings 
and all narrow local allusions should be carefully ex- 
cluded. 



.18 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

3. The abrupt Introduction (exordium ex 
dbrupto) is an impassioned outburst of in- 
dignation, grief, joy, or other strong feel- 
ing, in the beginning of a sermon. Such in- 
troduction is justified only by some excep- 
tional occasion — by some local or national 
occurrence which has moved men's souls to 
their lowest depths. A great scandal, for 
instance, has happened in a parish ; there is 
intense excitement among the people; the 
pastor feels bound to denounce the crime 
and, as far as possible, to counteract its 
effects, Here the use of the abrupt introduc- 
tion is appropriate, although it is question- 
able if it be obligatory. St. Paul, the most 
eloquent of the apostolic writers, seems to 
have preferred the ordinary form of intro- 
duction, even when he had a gross public 
crime to denounce and punish. In the 
opening of his first Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, he congratulates them on being 
made rich in Christ Jesus in all utterance 
and in all knowledge ; and it is only in the 
fifth chapter that he deals with the scandal 
of public incest that had occurred amongst 
them. 

Whatever may be said about the advis- 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 119 

ability of using this introduction, even in 
circumstances of intensest public excitement, 
it undoubtedly requires much judgment and 
tact to determine the space to be given to it, 
and still more, to make an easy, natural 
transition from it to the body of the sermon. 
It is always difficult to pass from emotional 
to non-emotional speech; and there is a 
special difficulty in doing so at the beginning 
of a discourse, when popular excitement is 
intensified by the impassioned language of 
the preacher, and the audience, in conse- 
quence, is but little disposed to listen to the 
calm exposition of doctrine. 

4. The grand Introduction starts on an 
elevated plane of thought. In terse, in- 
spiring, original language it enunciates some 
sublime truth which is made the background 
or setting for the special view given of it in 
the development of the theme. Preachers 
rarely attempt this introduction, as they not 
only distrust their ability to continue their 
sermon in the strain of such an opening; 
and besides they know that few audiences 
are capable of giving sustained attention to 
such a discourse. Hence, they prefer to act 
on the principle of gradual upward progres- 



120 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

sion implied in the well known maxim of 
Cicero — Semper crescat augeaturque oratio. 
We may conclude, then, that for all or- 
dinary, and generally even for extraordinary 
occasions, it is wisest to begin modestly, 
and to leave the grand exordium to men 
like Bossuet whose majestic intellect soared 
without effort into the region of transcen- 
dental thought and lived in it as in its con- 
genial atmosphere. 

5. A popular kind of introduction is de- 
duced from the body of the sermon (ex 
visceribus causae) . The preacher, after col- 
lecting and arranging the matter he intends 
to convey, gives a general idea of it in this 
introduction, by telling, 1. the subject to 
which his theme belongs, 2. the theme itself, 
or the special view of the subject he intends 
to take, and, 3. a brief outline of his mode 
of treatment. 

An introduction of this kind may be com- 
pared to the exhibition of a picture in dim 
outline, on which a strong light is thrown 
afterwards, bringing out every line and 
feature and every slightest shade of color. 
Such an opening has the merit of promoting 
clearness of comprehension in the minds of 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 121 

the audience; but it has this drawback, that 
it satisfies their expectation too soon and 
thereby lessens attention and interest 
through the main part of the sermon. 
People who know from the beginning the 
substance of a sermon are apt to be listless 
regarding details of exposition, illustration, 
etc. 

In a series of sermons such as I recom- 
mended in the fifth chapter, the introduction 
need be nothing more than a recapitulation 
of the preceding discourse with a clear, 
concise statement of its connexion with the 
present. 

A few words will suffice about the qualities 
of an ideal introduction. According to the 
old rhetoricians, those qualities are appro- 
priateness, care, modesty, and brevity. The 
first requires an introduction to be specially 
fitted to a sermon, so that it would be un- 
suited to any other. The second excludes 
from the opening of a sermon all slovenly, 
floundering speech, as well as all meretrici- 
ous ornaments of style — periodic sentences, 
balanced phrases and clauses, striking fig- 
ures , et c . The third demands a certain show 
of reverence for the audience and a sense 



122 Manual of Sacred BJietoric. 

of diffidence in one's ability to address it. 
Finally, brevity saves an introduction from 
its most prevalent fault — tedious, prosy 
lengthiness. 

NoTE. Young preachers are apt not only to make 
their introductions too long, but also to begin too far 
from their theme. A favorite habit of many of them is 
to open their sermon with the dawn of creation or the 
fall of our first parents. Such a beginning gives a little 
too much background ; and, besides, it suggests the dis- 
agreeable suspicion that the sermon is going to be 
drearily long and commonplace. For long-winded 
young orators, Kleutgen thinks an heroic remedy is 
necessary; namely, to cut out everything they write be- 
fore the announcement of their theme. In adolescenti- 
um oraHonidus, he says, saepe omnia praecidenda sunt, 
quae eum locum antecedunt, ubi primum causam ipsam 
attingunt. (Ars Dicendi, p. 305.) 

The prefatory character of the introduc- 
tion should be concealed as much as possi- 
ble. It should, therefore, supply from the 
start suggestive and inspiring thought, and 
lead up to the development of the theme by 
such easy, natural sequence of ideas, that 
the transition from the one to the other 
would be scarcely perceived. 

Among writers of Catholic sermons, Car- 
dinal Newman is singularly happy in his in- 
troductions. There is a gentle flow of stim- 
ulating thought in them that takes hold of 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 123 

the mind and carries it onward without con- 
scious effort. Yet before they can be use- 
fully studied as models, large allowance 
must be made for the difference between an 
American audience and such an English 
audience as he addressed. He spoke to the 
cultured intellect of his day: we for the 
most part preach to the toiler. The con- 
science of each must be approached on lines 
special to itself. 

EXAMPLES. 

(Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Text: Who 
is she that cometh like unto the morning rising?) 

Introduction: "It was thus that the inspired one of 
the Scripture described the coming of Mary the Mother 
of God. He contemplated the sad night of four thousand 
years, and, looking towards the Orient, he saw there a 
vision of divine beauty rising before him, and he ex- 
claimed : 'Who is she that cometh like unto the morn- 
ing?' That was the prophet's vision, and behold we 
are celebrating to-day the first coming of Mary the 
Mother of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — the 
first moment of her existence, when she was conceived 
in her mother's womb. Behold the dawn of that day of 
which she was the day-star, the precursor, and the 
promise ! Now, observe the language of the inspired 
one. He calls her aurora consurgens — the approach or 
first dawn of day springing up. In the order of nature, 
dearly beloved, the aurora or dawn gives promise, and 
is a sure harbinger of the day that is to follow. When 
a man who is keeping the night watch over his flocks 



124 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

and herds in the fields, or when the sailor who stands 
during the night-watches at the wheel, or when any 
person who has to keep a vigil during the darkness 
turns his eyes at the approach of day towards the east- 
ern horizon, he gathers with truth from the dawning of 
the morning what manner of day is to come. If, my 
dear brethren, on that eastern horizon he sees the early 
dawn and the breaking of the orient light crossed by 
angry clouds, if he sees there marks of atmospheric 
disturbances, then he concludes that the day will be 
stormy; but if, on the other hand, the dawn comes mild 
and pure, and the day-star rises limpid and beaming 
with undisturbed light — if he notes no cloud across the 
eastern vista — if no sign of angry atmosphere be there — 
then is such a dawn the promise of a day unclouded in 
the beauty and wealth of its sunshine. Even so is it in 
the order of grace. The dealings of God with man 
were divided into two great epochs, or days. The 
first is the day of Adam, of whom the apostle says : 
The first man of the earth and earthly. The second 
great epoch is the day of Jesus Christ, the Second 
Man, who was from heaven a7id heavenly. Of others 
the apostle makes no mention. He divides our 
history into those two great days, and thus each had an 
aurora, or dawning, in a woman. As soon as we turn 
to the first historical evidence of our race — when we 
turn to the East — which tells us of the origin of our 
being, there do we see the aurora, or dawn of our history 
in Eve. But scarcely does she appear on the horizon 
when we see hanging and clustering around her head 
the angry clouds of God's bitter vengeance, and we hear 
besides the voice of that angry God in tones of condem- 
nation and reproach, like the mutterings of the morn- 
ing thunder, and we are struck with terror to think how 
awful the day must be that was ushered in with so much 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 125 

promise of storm and of anger. And sad surely that 
day has been — a day of earth, a day of sin and of dark- 
ness, of which the prophet mournfully exclaims : There 
is no truth j there is no knowledge of God left in the 
land; cursing and lying, theft and adultery have pre- 
vailed, and behold! blood has touched blood. But, my 
dear brethren, the second day is approaching, the day 
that will bring the Man from heaven, heavenly — the day 
that will behold God and man united in one divine 
Person, united in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — 
the day that will behold an unclouded age, darkness 
dissipated, the reign of sin destroyed, and the mild 
sway of God's love and grace inaugurated — the day that 
will behold the terrible decree against man erased, the 
bolts of heaven withdrawn, and the golden portal 
open wide to us all. And this day — this day of peace, 
of happiness, and of benediction — had its aurora and 
dawn, and that dawn was in Mary, the Immaculate 
Mother of the Man-God. Oh ! how different from the 
coming of the first mother, Kve." Father Burke. 

(Good Friday. Text : Christus pro nobis mortuus est. 
Rom. v. 9.) 

"There is a something of fascination even in the 
ordinary stories of human sorrow. They reach a 
depth which stories of human triumph cannot reach. 
They bring with them a deeper pathos, a sublimer 
meaning ; and they win for those who suffer a sympathy 
too sacred to be lavished on anything less noble than 
sorrow. Take the lowliest life man ever lived ; surround 
it, if you will, with every mean commonplace that can 
strip human life of the innate dignity that is in it; 
place a man in what servile position you will ; yet if, 
amidst all the degradation of circumstances, you throw 
around him the mantle of many sorrows, he will make 



126 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

his appeal to the compassion of the human heart ; and 
his claim will be allowed, and men who never looked 
upon his face will drop a tear over the story of his 
sorrows. 

"But why, on a night like this, do I stay to speak of 
merely human sorrow? How comes it that, with the 
figure of the dead Christ looming through the shadows 
of the Church's mourning, I dare to turn my thoughts 
and yours to any sorrow less sacred than the sorrow 
that crowned with a crown of agony, the brow of the 
expiring Saviour? Ah, to me the reason is obvious. It 
is because the human heart shrinks back instinctively 
from such a mystery of sorrow as we contemplate to- 
day. It is because, recognizing in sorrows which, com- 
pared to this, shrink into insiguificance, a depth we 
almost fail to reach, we feel the almost hopelessness of 
bringing home to ourselves with anything like com- 
pleteness, the history of our Saviour's Passion. We go 
up the hill of Calvary, as the three disciples went up 
Mount Thabor ; as they, to see Him glorified, so we, to 
see Him wrapped around, with all the ignominy that 
came of His self-sacrifice ; and we, though crying aloud 
lik^ them, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here,' like them, 
too, veil our faces before the vision, and fall stricken 
to the earth by the revelation of that stupendous mys- 
tery of sorrow. 

"And yet, it is not in a spirit that is all sadness we 
come to celebrate the Passion of our Lord. Though 
the Church has put aside her crimson and her gold, for 
the robes of mourning; though she has stripped her 
altars of everything of beauty that might seem a sign 
of joy; though she pours forth her pathetic lamentation 
over the blood-shedding by which she herself was pur- 
chased ; yet she cannot but look to the things of great 
joy that lie beneath the surface 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 127 

"And why should it be otherwise? If Jesus died, did 
He not die to save the fallen world? If He lay in agony 
in Gethsemani, did He not bear up the burden of the 
sins of men? If hands and feet were dug and side 
pierced, was it not that salvation might flow out upon 
the world? And if He hung three hours of mortal 
agony upon the Cross, did He not hang there an all- 
atoning sacrifice for the sins of men? Yes, if the 
mystery of Calvary be a mystery of infinite sorrow, it 
is a mystery no less of infinite love." Rev. J.;0'Ferrall. 

(Nathanael ; or, The ready Believer and his Reward. 
Text : Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said 
unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? 
thou shalt see greater things than these. John i. 50.) 

"Nathanael was by nature a man free from cunning 
and deceit. He was a specimen of that honest and 
good ground of which our Saviour speaks in the para- 
ble, upon which, when the seed fell, a hundredfold 
harvest was produced. We have some such men about 
us, thank God, in this country : regular John Blunts, as 
we say, clear as crystal, true as the sun in the heavens. 
Many men are well known to us, who are upright, 
truthful, honest, candid, and open-hearted. You might 
trust them anywhere ; yea, trust them to repeat a con- 
versation without misrepresenting it, and that is saying 
a good deal in these times. Such people do not under- 
stand the clever arts of craft and cunning, for they do 
not take to them naturally, and have never been trained 
in the practice of policy. Speech is not to them the 
medium of concealing their thoughts. When they have 
a mind to speak, they speak their mind. You know 
where they are. They may have great many faults, 
but they have not the faults of deception and dis- 
simulation. They are Israelites indeed, in whom 
is no guile. You know the kind of people : they 



128 Manual of Sacred Mhetoric. 

may at times speak too harshly, 'and hurt your 
feelings ; they may put things in an ugly shape, and 
tread on people's corns; but they are as straight as a 
plumb-line, and you may be sure that you know them 
when you have heard what they say. In the end they 
cause far less pain to people's feelings than those who 
have a great deal of finesse and policy, whose words 
are softer than butter, but inwardly they are drawn 
swords. Smooth and oily tongues, with lying hearts at 
the back of them, are fit instruments for Satan ; but 
truth-speaking lips, which are joined to an honest 
heart, are precious things which the Lord himself de- 
lights to use." C. H. Spurgeon. 

(The Feast of the Precious Blood. Text : Converse in 
fear during the time of your sojourning here, knowing 
that you were not redeemed with corruptible gold or 
silver, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
lamb unspotted and undefiled. I Peter i. 18.) 

"Pope Pius IX, when in Gaeta, the place of his exile, 
in 1849, solemnly instituted the feast of the Precious 
Blood, for the first Sunday in July. That most sacred 
stream is the price of our redemption, and is poured 
out daily in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, whence it 
streams into the channels of the seven Sacraments, as 
atonement for our sins, and for our sanctification. For, 
as in Egypt God was propitiated by the blood of the 
paschal lamb, the figure of the true Lamb of God, so is 
He propitiated by the blood of His Son, the true 
Paschal Lamb; 'which speaketh better than Abel.' 
Heb. xii, 24. Herein is the strongest evidence of the 
infinite love of Jesus Christ, who not only once, but 
seven times, shed His precious Blood amidst the most 
cruel sufferings for our salvation. Let this seven-fold 
shedding of the Precious Blood be the subject of our 
present meditation." J. E. Zollner. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Proposition and Division. 

The Introduction prepares the audience 
to listen with interest to the exposition of 
the theme. To make this exposition as 
clear as possible, we must begin with a 
short, crisp statement of what we are going 
to say together with an intimation more or 
less explicit of the order we intend to ob- 
serve in saying it. This statement and the 
intimation of order accompanying it are 
called the Proposition and the Division. 
They may be conveyed in a few sentences ; 
yet the wording of these demands care and 
skill to make them dense with thought and 
at the same time inspiring and suggestive. 

Note. In recent years a distinction has been drawn 
between the subject and the theme of a composition. 
"The subject is the general or class idea on which the 
production is based, the most unrestricted answer to 
the question, What shall I write about? .... The 
theme is the subject concentrated, by means of directive 
limitations, upon a single issue, so that it shall contain 
one principle of division, one definite indication of 

(129) 



130 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

treatment, one suggestion of scope and limits." (Ge- 
nung, Practical Rhetoric, pp. 249, 250.) In a sermon, 
then, the theme is the subject viewed from one stand- 
point ; and as the principle of unity admits but one 
theme, so it admits but one standpoint from which the 
subject is to be viewed and expounded. Hence, to take 
two or more standpoints is to make two or more ser- 
mons. For example, if, at the approach of Corpus 
Christi or the Forty Hours' Devotion, we preach to our 
people on the most holy Eucharist, this — the Euch- 
arist — will be our subject. But are we to speak of it 
in all its extent? Assuredly no; this would be impos- 
sible in one sermon. We must, therefore, take some 
particular view of it — treat it from some definite stand- 
point — so as to produce a deep, clear-cut impression 
on the minds and hearts of our hearers. This particu- 
lar view of our subject will be our theme. 

1. The Proposition is simply the theme 
expressed in clear, concise, and popular 
form. It tells the particular view we intend 
to take of the subject; and, as a sermon is 
essentially practical in its aim or purpose, 
the proposition suggests or implies the 
distinct spiritual good we endeavor to pro- 
duce in the audience. Thus, if our theme 
be: An unworthy Communion, the proposi- 
tion will be somewhat as follows: "To re- 
ceive Holy Communion unvested with the 
wedding garment of innocence and grace, 
is of all crimes the most awful and soul- 
dooming. To this crime I now call your 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 131 

attention ; and I will endeavor with the help 
of God's light and grace, to represent to 
you, if faintly, at least correctly, this ter- 
rible sin of an unworthy Communion (divi- 
sion), as a compound of treachery and sacri- 
lege beyond those in every other crime/ ' 
(Wiseman.) 

Much of the success of a sermon depends 
on the clear, crisp statement of the propo- 
sition. This should stimulate the interest 
of the hearers, and at the same time guide 
the preacher and save him from unnecessary 
digressions. Above all, it should keep 
him from mixing together different aspects 
of his subject in the same sermon. For in- 
stance, if he propose to speak of Forgive- 
ness of Injuries, he should not dwell on 
Almsgiving or Fraternal Correction, al- 
though all three are duties arising from the 
commandment of charity. 

The proposition and definite object 
should be related to each other as cause to 
effect or antecedent to consequent. For 
example, in a sermon on the Death of the 
Sinner, the proposition may be : At the hour 
of death, "sinners are delivered to the most 
frightful despair at the view of the eternal 



132 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

misery which they have deserved ; so that 
the past, the present, and the future, con- 
cur all at once to make the death of the 
sinner a terrible scene, — (division) the past 
by its bitter regrets, the present by its 
despair, and the future by its overwhelm- 
ing punishment. " (Rev. F. X. McGowan, 
O. S. A.) This proposition has but one 
obvious, logical conclusion, or definite ob- 
ject, namely, that we should strain every 
nerve — adopt every possible means — to save 
ourselves from death while in mortal en- 
mity with Grod. 

As a rule, it is not advisable to mention 
the definite object formally in the proposi- 
tion. Let the ostensible purpose be in- 
struction, while the more important pur- 
pose of persuasion runs in an undercurrent 
through the whole sermon, coming, how- 
ever, occasionally to the surface in appropri- 
ate appeals to the feelings and the will. 

From what I have said, the character- 
istics of a well-framed proposition may be 
easily inferred, a) It should be one; that 
is, it should not be made up of two or more 
independent or loosely connected state- 
ments. The reason is that, being the ex- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 133 

pression of the theme, it should announce 
the development of the subject from one 
point of view only. Of course, as I shall 
show hereafter, this unity does not exclude 
a variety of constituent elements on which 
the division of a sermon is frequently based, 
b) The proposition should be definite; the 
terms used in it should not be vague or am- 
biguous; and the truth or duty it announces 
for development should not be wider or 
more comprehensive than the actual exposi- 
tion which follows, c) It should be weighty 
with suggestive, stimulating thought (gra- 
vis). Gravem autem dico propositionem, 
writes Kleutgen, quae et oratoris diligentiam 
et audientium attentionem meretur, excitat, et 

juvat Neque vero ideo quaerenda est 

sententia valde acuta vel paradoxa; sed talis, 
ex qua totum possit orationis corpus aliqaid 
novitatis, multtim venustatis, pliirimum utili- 
tatis et contentionis accipere. d) The matter 
of the proposition should be adapted to the 
preacher, to the audience, and to the time, 
place and other circumstances in which the 
sermon is delivered. This characteristic 
may at first sight seem so obvious that it 
does not need to be mentioned ; yet we have 



134 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

it on good authority that mat a propos ser- 
mons are sometimes preached from the 
American pulpit. 

Illustkation. "I once listened to a 
visiting clergyman condemning in vehement 
language, low-necked dresses where their 
use was utterly unknown, and where the 
censure had as little application as it would 
have had among the inhabitants of the 
arctic regions. I heard of a young minister 
of the Grospel who delivered a homily on 
the ravages of intemperance before an audi- 
ence composed exclusively of pious, un- 
married ladies who hardly knew the taste of 
wine, and still less that of stronger drink. 
I heard of another who preached on the 
duties of married life before a community 
of nuns and aged inmates. " (Cardinal 
Gibbons, in "The Ambassador of Christ. ") 

2. Division. Some preachers seem to 
think that every sermon should have two 
or three "points" at least. Hence they 
either divide their subject-matter factiti- 
ously or they crowd so much of it into each 
division and the connexion between part 
and part is so loose that they really preach 
two or three sermons instead of one. They 



Manual of Sacred Ehetoric. 135 

forget that unity is an essential requirement 
of every sermon , and that it is much better 
to bring one truth home to the heart, than 
a hundred to the intellect, of their audi- 
ence. 

There are some themes, no doubt, to 
which full justice cannot be done without 
division ; and it cannot be denied that many 
of the masterpieces of pulpit eloquence that 
have come down to us have their parts, or 
points, formally noted: yet, of the two 
forms of sermon, the divided and the un- 
divided, the latter approaches more closely 
the ideal of preaching. It does not dissipate 
the attention of the audience by diversity of 
matter; it does not overtax the memory; 
its persistent adherence to one point has in 
it a momentum that acts on the will as no 
multiplicity of considerations could act. 

And there will be no want of variety in 
such a sermon, if we expound the proposi- 
tion by definition, illustration, and histor- 
ical development, and enforce the practical 
lesson contained in it by appropriate 
motives. It is quite true that more pro- 
found study of the theme is required for an 
undivided than for a divided sermon ; but 



136 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

the extra labor will be richly rewarded, not 
by the greater benefit of the audience only, 
but by the mental and spiritual culture 
effected in the preacher himself. 

Division, however, is necessary in many 
sermons ; hence, some notion of its nature 
and qualities must be given here. 

A proposition may be analyzed and it 
may be divided. It is analyzed when we 
take apart and explain the elements that 
constitute it. This analysis is the main 
office of definition. It is divided when we 
enumerate the particular propositions which 
it comprises. For example, in the proposi- 
tion, scandal is spiritual murder, analysis 
takes each of the three words, scandal, mur- 
der, and spiritual, and explains its mean- 
ing. Division, on the other hand, confines 
itself to the subject scandal, and enumerates 
its different kinds — scandal in word, in act, 
or in omission, diabolical scandal, simply 
direct scandal (simpliciter tale), scandal of 
the weak, pharisaical scandal. With each 
of these forms, except the last, it connects 
the predicate spiritual murder, thus break- 
ing up the general proposition into the par- 
ticular propositions contained in it. 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 137 

The logical division here described is not 
often used to supply "the points" of a ser- 
mon. Some propositions, indeed, do not 
admit of this division, as their subjects are 
singular terms; while others, if so divided, 
would supply insufficient material for ex- 
position and at the same time exclude much 
practical instruction. Moreover, definition 
in its widest sense includes logical division ; 
for we cannot be said to have full know- 
ledge of what is defined unless we know its 
extension, that is, the particular objects, 
facts, or truths which it comprises. For 
this reason preachers very often give under 
the head of definition not only the essential 
elements of the thing explained, but also its 
different kinds or classes. Their division 
into parts or points they make on another 
principle. 

What, then, is the principle on which the 
proposition of a sermon ought to be divided! 
Manifestly, the attainment of the definite 
object. We speak to our people with a 
distinct practical end in view; therefore, 
every thing we say must conduce to this 
end; and not only what we say, but the 
order in which we say it. The requirements 



138 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

of logic or of literary taste, however bind- 
ing in other forms of composition, must, if 
necessary, give way in a sermon to the 
order most helpful to inspire the will to 
action through enlightenment of the under- 
standing and appeal to the feelings. 

The character of the audience we address 
has much to do with the division of a ser- 
mon. Fine reasoning has but slight in- 
fluence on the uneducated, and subtle 
distinctions absolutely bewilder them. 
Hence, a member of a division that could 
not be satisfactorily expounded without re- 
course to such reasoning and distinctions 
ought to be excluded from an ordinary 
Sunday sermon. Take for example the 
following arrangement of matter in a ser- 
mon on the Greatness of Mary: "Let us 
follow all the degrees of the humiliation of 
Mary. I can perceive three of them in par- 
ticular — first the almost impenetrable ob- 
scurity which concealed all her titles to glory 
during the course of her mortal life; sec- 
ondly, the profound abjection into which 
she was plunged by the ignominies of her 
Son ; and thirdly — what affected her heart 
more deeply — the apparent coldness which 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 139 

she experienced, even to the end, from this 
only and beloved Son." The reasoning by 
which these degrees of humiliation are made 
to show the greatness of the Mother of Grod 
is altogether too subtle for the popular 
mind. 

To find the most useful division of our 
proposition, we ought to bring ourselves in 
imagination to a level with our audience, 
enter into their thoughts, determine the 
limits of their knowledge of our theme, ex- 
amine the prejudices, passions, errors, dif- 
ficulties, we shall have to overcome, and 
the most practical means of overcoming 
them. Many sermons, ably and laboriously 
prepared, bear scant fruit, because the 
preacher takes no account of the special 
character and requirements of him he has 
to address. When these are well weighed 
and kept in mind, it is easy to determine 
what should be put first, what in the second 
and the third place, to attain our object. 
The intellectual comes before the emo- 
tional; the theoretic before the practical; 
the Written Word before its interpretation ; 
the authority of the Church, before the 
evidence of intellect or sense ; the motive of 
repulsion, before the motive of attraction. 



140 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

In most doctrinal sermons, the terms 
used in enunciating the doctrine may be 
used as the members of division. Thus, 
for example, a sermon on the words of the 
Creed, "I believe in God," is naturally 
divided into two parts, the first explaining 
the nature of faith, and the second what we 
know about God. In treating of the Sacra- 
ments, however, the divisions of theology 
are simple and obvious, and ought to be 
preferred to all others. If our theme be 
some event, such as Death, Judgment, the 
Incarnation, etc., we may arrange our 
matter under the heads of cause, conse- 
quences, lesson; or we may take some 
prominent circumstances connected with 
the event — certainty and uncertainty ; with 
preparation, without preparation; before, 
during, after. 

For moral sermons, the time-honored 
division of the theme into 1 ) what is to be 
done, 2) how it is to be done, and 3) why 
it is to be done, is made on broad lines and 
can scarcely be excelled. In preaching on 
Prayer, for example, we explain, first, the 
nature of the duty, secondly, its practice, 
or how to pray, and, thirdly, the motives 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 141 

that should induce us to pray. Sometimes 
the nature of the virtue, vice, or duty about 
which we speak may require no explana- 
tion, in which case the first part of our ser- 
mon should be made to consist of the doc- 
trinal foundation of the moral obligation. 
Indeed, in speaking of the nature of any 
virtue, we should insist strongly on this 
doctrinal foundation. Likeness to God or, 
as St. Paul puts it, conformity to the 
image of His Son, is for every one a neces- 
sary condition of salvation. This likeness 
or conformity is established by sanctifying 
grace and the virtues and gifts infused with 
it, and it is maintained and increased by 
the exercise of those virtues. The meek- 
ness, humility, patience, charity of our 
divine Lord should be alluded to frequently 
as the ideal, the exemplar of all true Chris- 
tian living. Besides, the closest conformity 
that man can reach here on earth consists 
in the union of his will by perfect obedience 
with the will of Grod. Now the will of Grod 
is revealed to us in His law, and this is 
adequately fulfilled only by the practice of 
the theological and moral virtues. 

Note. The relation of the virtues, theological and 
moral, to the economy of Redemption is treated ex- 



142 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

haustively by St. Thomas in 1. q. 93, o., 1. 2. qq. 61, 62, 
and in the Summa c. Gent., lib. 3, cap. 17, 18, 19. 

In treating of the moral virtues, it is of vital 
importance to point out that, unless super- 
naturalized, they do not merit any eternal 
reward. They differ specifically from the 
moral virtues infused with sanctifying 
grace, although the external actions in 
which both terminate are substantially the 
same. 

The attention of the audience should be 
directed as little as possible to the members 
into which a sermon is divided. In fact, 
the ideal of division is so to conceal it under 
the clear, progressive flow of thought that 
it will not be recognized as such by the 
audience. Make them look intently at the 
truth or duty you are explaining; make 
it appear more and more luminous in each 
succeeding stage of development; make 
them apply it to themselves by an earnest, 
practical resolution: and they will be so 
absorbed in this vital work, that they will 
pay no more direct attention to the dif- 
ferent points of your sermon, than they do 
to the sun when it shows them a beautiful 
landscape. It follows from this, that the 
division of a sermon ought not be an- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 143 

nounced formally in connexion with the 
proposition. Yet an informal and covert 
intimation of it arouses interest and expec- 
tation, and, therefore, should not be 
omitted. 

Note;. I feel all the responsibility of throwing over- 
board the venerable custom of announcing formally 
each point of a sermon ; still I do so deliberately and 
without any qualm of regret. The traditional "first," 
"secondly," "thirdly," — perhaps also, "fourthly," 
"fifthly," — served no good purpose; they interrupted 
the continuity of the discourse ; they prejudiced the 
young against sermons ; and they held out a strong 
temptation to the audience to relax their attention and 
interest at each formally announced division. 

The qualities of a good division may be 
easily inferred from its nature and purpose. 
1. It should be brief that is, made up of 
few members. 2. It should be simple. A 
metaphysical or paradoxical division over- 
taxes the thinking power of an audience. 
Bourdaloue divided his celebrated sermon 
on Faith into two parts — Faith saves ; 
Faith condemns; but this division, how- 
ever sanctioned by the usage of his day or 
by the character of his audience, would not 
be suitable to an ordinary American con- 
gregation. 3. It should be adequate, or ex- 
haustive, covering the proposition precisely 



144 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

and including everything necessary for its 
full and satisfactory development. If a ser- 
mon on Hell were to be divided from the 
twofold pain suffered — the pain of loss and 
the pain of sense — the division would be 
inadequate, because the important element 
of unending duration would be omitted. 
This quality, however, is not necessary 
when the division is taken from circum- 
stances connected with the theme. Thus, 
in a sermon on the Love of G-od, if the 
division be taken from the motives that 
urge men to it, there is no necessity to give 
all those motives that might be adduced; — 
the strongest and most telling are sufficient. 
4. Lastly, the division ought to be adapted 
to the attainment of the definite object. 
This quality has been sufficiently explained 
already. 

Examples of Peoposition and Division. 
1. On the Maternity of the Blessed Vir- 
gin. "This festival of the Maternity of the 
Blessed Virgin recalls to us the illustrious 
virtues with which she was endowed, and 
the sublime privileges with which she was 
invested. We will simply go through a few 
passages of her life, and consider her in her 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 145 

various relations with her Son ; and see how 
we can trace those memorable events that 
distinguished her in the world, that have 
raised her to a place beside the throne of 
that Son in heaven, to her simple but glori- 
ous title of 'Mother of Jesus'." (Wise- 
man.) 

2. The Eucharist. "What do we find in 
ancient Jerusalem? The prefiguring and 
foreshadowing of Christ. What shall we 
find in the Heavenly Jerusalem! The pos- 
session of Christ without types or shadows. 
What ought we then to find in the Church? 
Both foreshadowing and possession. Fore- 
shadowing, because we are not yet capable 
of, or prepared for, the vision of Christ; 
possession, because Christ has already come 
to satisfy the desire of mankind. There- 
fore we need the Eucharist ; that is, some- 
thing which does not give us the shadow 
without possession, nor possession without 
the shadow. See, brethren, how naturally 
and aptly the Eucharist places itself in the 
history of humanity, for the development 
of the designs of Providence with regard to 
religion, and such is the sweet argument of 
which it is my privilege to-day to speak." 
(P. Agostino da Montefeltro.) 



146 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

3. Temperance. "Now, if you wish to 
know the glorious object for which you are 
associated in this grand temperance move- 
ment; if you wish to know the magnifi- 
cent purpose which you should have in 
view, all you have to do is to reflect with 
me upon the consequence and the nature of 
intemperance, against which you have de- 
clared war. Let me depict to you, as well 
as I can, what intemperance is — what 
drunkenness is ; and then I shall have laid 
a solid foundation to the appeal which I 
make to you, not only personally to per- 
severe in this glorious cause of temperance, 
but to try, every man of you, like an evan- 
gelist of this holy Grospel, to gather as 
many as you can of your friends and associ- 
ates, and of those whom your influence 
reaches, to become members of this most 
salutary and honorable body. No man can 
value a virtue until he knows the deep de- 
gradation of the opposite vice." (Father 
Burke.) 




CHAPTER X. 
Narration and Description. 

The body of a sermon is mostly occupied 
with the exposition of revealed truth. This 
exposition should be clear, interesting, and 
persuasive; and to make it such, frequent 
examples, comparisons and other illustra- 
tions are absolutely necessary. They are 
necessary to relieve the mind from the 
strain of continued serious thought, and to 
stimulate the attention ; but, above all, they 
are necessary to throw light on the truth 
expounded and to impress it on the mind. 
Hence, exposition requires much help from 
narration and description ; and therefore, I 
think it advisable to make a few general 
remarks in the present chapter on these 
two forms of discourse. 

Narration deals with facts or occurrences 
which it recounts ; description with objects, 
character and mental states which it por- 
trays. History and biography belong 
(147) 



148 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

mostly to narration, while books of travel 
abound in description. 

1. Narration may be a simple statement 
of some transaction or it may be a state- 
ment of a series of occurrences culminating 
in one of special interest, called the denoue- 
ment. The transactions or occurrences 
which form the subject-matter of narration 
may be either real or imagined. The facts 
of our divine Lord's life as well as all others 
sufficiently authenticated are real; parables, 
allegories, and fables are imagined. Both 
have their place and use in a sermon. 

As narration is subsidiary to exposition 
and persuasion, it must of necessity be 
short. It must also be clear and simple,— 
it must impose no strain on the attention of 
the audience, but rather be an interval of 
rest for the recovery of mental energy pre- 
viously expended. Again, it must be appo- 
site ; that is, it must have a manifest pur- 
pose of elucidation or enforcement; and it 
must be capable of promoting it. An ex- 
ample, no matter how well told, that has 
only a forced or remote application can 
have no motive but the miserable vanity of 
the preacher; it does not forward the end 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 149 

of the sermon ; and although it may give 
pleasure to some, in those whose judgment 
is worth anything it is calculated to produce 
only contempt. 

In narrating a transaction or series of 
occurrences, the order of time ought to be 
generally followed. If the facts be real, 
they should be narrated faithfully, and no 
imaginary circumstances should be intro- 
duced to heighten the effect. 

Note. A preacher familiar with the topography of 
Palestine as well as the manners and character of its 
people may often add much beauty to a Scripture nar- 
rative by describing the scene of the occurrence. By 
this means, the events mentioned in the Gospels may 
be made singularly vivid and interesting. Even local 
or personal features based on probable conjecture may 
be introduced into the picture, provided we make clear 
their conjectural character to our hearers. Observe, 
for instance, how delicately yet definitely Cardinal 
Newman gives the tradition of the Assumption of our 
Blessed Lady with an intimation of the credence to be 
given to it. "She, the lily of Eden, who had always 
dwelt out of the sight of man, fittingly did she die in 
the garden's shade, and amid the sweet flowers in 
which she had lived. Her departure made no noise in 
the world. The Church went about her common 
duties, preaching, converting, suffering ; there were 
persecutions, there was fleeing from place to place, 
there were martyrs, there were triumphs ; at length the 
rumor spread abroad that the Mother of God was no 
longer upon earth. Pilgrims went to and fro ; they 



150 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric > 

sought for her relics, but they found them not ; did she 
die at Ephesus ? or did she die at Jerusalem ? reports 
varied ; but her tomb could not be pointed out, or if it 
was found, it was open ; and instead of her pure and 
fragrant body, there was a growth of lilies from the 
earth she had touched. So inquirers went home mar- 
veling, and waiting for further light. And then it was 
said, how that when her dissolution was at hand, and 
her soul was to pass in triumph before the judgment- 
seat of her Son, the apostles were suddenly gathered 
together in the place, even in the Holy City, to bear 
part in the joyful ceremonial ; how that they buried her 
with fitting rites ; how that the third day, when they 
came to the tomb, they fonnd it empty, and angelic 
choirs with their glad voices were heard singing day 
and night the glories of their risen Queen. But, bow- 
ever we feel towards the details of this history (nor is 
there anything in it which will be unwelcome or diffi- 
cult to piety), so much cannot be doubted, from the 
consent of the whole Catholic world and the revelations 
made to holy souls, that, as is befitting, she is, soul 
and body, with her Son and God in Heaven, and that 
we are enabled to celebrate, not only her death, but her 
Assumption." 

(On the Fitness of the Glories of Mary.) 

Narration is used by preachers almost ex- 
clusively for the purpose of illustration; 
but it is equally well adapted and should be 
as freely used to arouse the feelings on be- 
half of the definite object. "Suavis nar- 
ratio est" writes Cicero, u quae habet ad- 
mirationes, expectationes, exitus inopinatos> 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 151 

motus animorum, colloquia personarum, do- 
lores, iraciindias, motus, laetitias, cupidita- 
tes." It may not be always easy to find 
facts the narration of which will produce 
those emotions; and even when we have 
found them, much taste and skill are re- 
quired in our style and delivery to bring 
out their full effect. It is probably on 
account of such difficulties that preachers 
rarely use narration in the conclusion of 
their sermons. Yet the every-day life of a 
parish as well as the daily newspaper sup- 
plies numerous pathetic and other emotional 
incidents well calculated to touch and 
arouse feeling ; and a priest of earnest pur- 
pose will not find much trouble in collect- 
ing those incidents for future use in the 
pulpit. The style and delivery used in 
presenting them must be acquired by prac- 
tice. 

2. Description. This is the accurate 
portrayal of persons or things. It not only 
adds much beauty to a sermon, but it is 
most useful in engaging the attention of an 
audience and inspiring interest in the ex- 
position of truth. It bears much the same 
relation to a sermon that the u compositio 
loci" of St. Ignatius bears to a meditation. 



152 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Description has for its subject-matter 
everything that can be portrayed in words, 
— persons, places and objects, as well as 
mental states, such as sorrow, remorse, 
pity, desire, etc. It is generally found in 
combination with other forms of discourse, 
particularly with narration. It is difficult, 
indeed, to narrate an occurrence with any 
satisfaction to the hearer unless we describe 
the actors in it and give some idea of the 
place where it happened. 

A description of the surrounding scenery, 
when it can be given, is generally an appro- 
priate and agreeable setting for an exposi- 
tion of our Saviour's words and actions. It 
need not be minute, but the details given 
should be vivid and striking. 

The chief use, however, of Description in 
sermons is to depict mental states. The 
unrest, the remorse, the agony of a believ- 
ing soul enmeshed in a habit of sin, if well 
described, will exercise a powerful influence 
on an audience, because each one's experi- 
ence will recognize the truth of the descrip- 
tion. Yet there are few processes of com- 
position more difficult than this portrayal 
of the interior working and state of the 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 153 

soul. Many of us have not acquired the 
habit of introspection that is absolutely 
necessary for the undertaking ; and, more- 
over, we have but few words in our lan- 
guage to express with exactness purely men- 
tal acts and states. Hence direct descrip- 
tion of the interior movements of the soul 
should be rarely attempted; it is much 
easier and better to give the outward mani- 
festations and effects of those movements. 

The descriptions introduced into a ser- 
mon ought to be brief. As, in general, they 
are ancillary to exposition, they should not 
be allowed to push it into the background 
or absorb an undue share of interest and 
importance. Some preachers who have a 
special talent for description devote alto- 
gether too much space to word-painting. 
They, no doubt, produce a pleasing impres- 
sion on an audience ; but it is questionable 
if their sermons are productive of salutary 
results. They seem to make numerous ad- 
mirers for themselves, but few converts to 
the higher life. 

To acquire facility and skill in the art of 
description, writers distinguished as word- 
painters should be read slowly and thought- 



154 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

fully, and their most striking passages or 
sketches should be analyzed, copied, and 
reproduced in our own words, with the pur- 
pose of mastering the secret of their suc- 
cess. 

In modern prose literature Carlyle, De 
Quincey, and Ruskin stand preeminent as 
word-painters; but for artistic delineation 
of mental states De Quincey is unsurpassed 
by any other modern writer. We need not, 
however, go outside the Church for a model 
of exquisite descriptive writing. Many of 
Father Faber's Spiritual Works abound in 
beautiful word-pictures, not only of persons 
and material objects, but also of every 
emotional state of the mind. His work en- 
titled "The Foot of the Cross' 7 will be 
found particularly useful to young preachers 
in this respect. 

The description of sacred persons of 
whom we may have occasion to speak in 
the course of a sermon, should consist of 
characteristics grounded on Sacred Scrip- 
ture or authentic history. Mere possibility 
or even likelihood does not justify us in de- 
fining and individualizing persons left un- 
defined — perhaps purposely — in the in- 
spired writings. 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 155 

As to the vividness of coloring used in 
description, a delicate problem arises. " Re- 
fined" taste abhors flaring colors in liter- 
ature as well as in dress and in painting. 
The horrors of an impenitent death, of a 
soul condemned at Judgment, of the eter- 
nal fire of Hell are acutely painful to it. 
On the other hand, the general run of 
people are grimly attracted by descriptions 
of such things and are benefited by them. 
Is a priest, then, guilty of an offense 
against what is called refined taste when he 
gives a harrowing picture of some object 
connected with his sermon? I know some 
who think so; — persons who sneer at those 
lurid, but truthful descriptions of the con- 
sequences of sin, given in missions and re- 
treats. There are priests, too, who are in- 
fluenced by such sneers and who preach 
unemotional, colorless sermons because they 
wish to please one or two would-be high- 
toned families in their congregation. Such 
conduct is not only unworthy but criminal 
in a minister of the G-ospel. Yet I do not 
deny that mistaken zeal sometimes leads 
preachers into the opposite extreme of 
grossly exaggerated descriptions of death, 



156 Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 

and judgment and hell, of the fewness of 
the elect and the irredeemable damnation 
of the world. I cannot help suspecting that 
it is not all zeal that inspires those men to 
extend without warrant the simple words of 
Sacred Scripture. But whatever be their 
motive, they are quite as guilty, consciously 
or unconsciously, of perverting revealed 
truth as those who attempt to minimize its 
terrors. Apostolic men fell into neither 
extreme. They exaggerated nothing ; they 
kept within the ordinary, traditional teach- 
ing of the Church; they tried not to 
heighten the effect of their descriptions by 
recounting pious beliefs, apposite miracles, 
or private revelations without strict invest- 
igation of their truth. Still those men 
preached with an earnestness and a vehe- 
mence and an impassioned fervor which we 
may strive to emulate but can never expect 
to surpass. 

EXAMPLES. 

"It was at the beginning of the present century that 
this devotion of the Month of Mary sprang np in the 
Catholic Church ; and the circumstances of its origin 
are most wonderful. Some seventy years ago, or there- 
abouts, a little child — a poor little child — scarcely 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 157 

come to the use of reason, on a beautiful evening in 
May, knelt down, and began to lisp with childish voice 
the Litany of the Blessed Virgin before the image of 
the Child in the arms of the Madonna, in one of the 
streets of Rome. One little child in Rome, moved by 
an impulse that we cannot account for — apparently a 
childish freak — knelt down in the public streets and 
began saying the Litany that he had heard sung in the 
church. The next evening he was there again at the 
same hour, and began singing his little litany again. 
Another little child, a boy, on his passage stopped, and 
began singing the responses. The next evening three 
or four other children came, apparently for amuse- 
ment, and knelt before the same image of the Blessed 
Virgin, and sang their litany. After a time — after a 
few evenings — some pious women, the mothers of the 
children, delighted to see the early piety of their sons 
and daughters, came along with them, and knelt down, 
and blended their voices in the litany ; and the priest 
of a neighboring church said : 'Come into the church, 
and I will light a few candles on the altar of the 
Blessed Virgin, and we will all sing the litany to- 
gether.' And so they went into the church; they 
lighted up the candles, and knelt, and there they sang 
the litany. He spoke a few words to them about the 
Blessed Virgin, about her patience, about her love for 
her divine Son, and about the dutiful veneration in 
which she was held by her Son. From that hour the 
devotion of the month of May spread throughout the 
whole Catholic world ; until within a few years, where- 
ever there was a Catholic church, a Catholic altar, a 
Catholic priest, or a Catholic to hear and respond to 
the litany, the month of May became the month of 
Mary, the month of devotion to the Blessed Virgin." 

Father Burke. 



158 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

"The poor infant passes through his two, or three, or 
five years of innocence, blessed in that he cannot yet 
sin ; but at length (oh woeful day!) he begins to realize 
the distinction between right and wrong. Alas, sooner 
or later, for the age varies, but sooner or later the aw- 
ful day has come; he has the power, the great, the 
dreadful, the awful power of discerning and pro- 
nouncing a thing to be wrong, and yet doing it. He 
has a distinct view that he shall grievously offend his 
Maker and Judge by doing this or that; and while he 
is really able to keep from it, he is at liberty to choose 
it, and to commit it. He has the dreadful power of 
committing a mortal sin. Young as he is, he has as 
true an apprehension of that sin, and can give as real 
a consent, as did the evil spirit, when he fell. The day 
is come, and who shall say whether it will have closed, 
whether it will have run out many hours, before he will 
have exercised that power, and have perpetrated, in 
fact, what he ought not to do, what he need not do, 

what he can do ? Poor child ! he looks the same 

to his parents. They do not know what has been going 
on in him; or perhaps, did they know it, they would 
think very little of it, for they are in a state of mortal 
sin as well as he. They, too, long before they knew 
each other, had sinned, and mortally too, and were 
never reconciled to God ; thus they lived for years, un- 
mindful of their state. At length they married ; it was 
a day of joy to them, but not to the angels ; they might 
be in high life or in low estate, they might be pros- 
perous or not in their temporal course, but their union 
was not blessed by God. They gave birth to a child ; 
he was not condemned to hell on his birth, but he had 
the omens of evil upon him, it seemed that he would 
go the way of all flesh : and now the time has come ; 
the presage is justified ; and he willingly departs from 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 159 

God. At length the forbidden fruit has been eaten; 
sin has been devoured with a pleased appetite ; the 
gates of hell have yawned upon him, silently and with- 
out his knowing it ; he has no eyes to see its flames, 
but its inhabitants are gazing upon him ; his place in it 
is fixed beyond dispute ; — unless his Maker interfere 
in some extraordinary way, he is doomed." 

Cardinal Newman. 

"The mothers at once understood Jesus Christ ; their 
heart deceived them not ; and high and transcendent 
as were His words, though the end to be attained 
seemed something away from the earth, though hence- 
forth the crown of maternal dignity must be something 
holy and austere, yet when the mothers heard that 
sublime and tender voice saying, 'Suffer the little chil- 
dren to come to Me, theirs is the kingdom of heaven,' 
they ran to Him. 

"And from that day, after that word, how delightful 
it is to see in the Gospel how our Lord scarcely again 
walked on the earth without being surrounded by chil- 
dren and their mothers. 

"With that infallible instinct whereby the heart 
knows where love exists, these poor mothers came to 
Jesus Christ in full confidence, and brought their chil- 
dren to Him ; carrying some on their arms and in their 
bosom, holding others by the hand, they besought Him 
graciously to touch them, to bless them, to lay His 
hands on them, and to pray for them: 'Oblati sunt ei 

parvuliy ut mantes eis imponeret, et oraret Af- 

ferebant ad ilium parvulos et infantes? 

"Our Lord, then, suffered Himself to be surrounded 
by all these little children, and Himself coming close 
to them, He looked on them with ineffable love, He 
sweetly caressed them, with His divine lips He touched 



160 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

their pure foreheads, He placed His hands on their in- 
nocent heads, and prayed over them, as their mothers 
had besought Him : 'Et complexans eos, orabat super 
illos? 

"They are so weak, so young ; the journey will be so 
long and so dangerous, they will meet with so many 
snares and deceits ! Ah ! yes, I can understand that 
their mothers would beseech the Saviour to pray for 
them ; I feel that this divine Saviour would gather in 
His heart the tenderest and most powerful prayers, and 
that He would say them over these dear and gentle 
children, to preserve them from evil, to guard their in- 
nocence, to place them as it were under the shelter of 
His love, at least in these early and pure joys of the 
morning of their life. 

"But what is no less charming to see in the Gospels, 
is that not only the mothers, but that the children also 
felt themselves drawn to our Lord, they understood the 
confidence of their mothers, and they showed them- 
selves yet more trusting still 

"There are two examples of this love of the children 
for our Lord, which touch me specially, and which will 
show how great this love was: thus following Him 
even to the heart of a wilderness, we see them for- 
getting all the needs of life, and that for three days. 
When our Lord miraculously multiplied the loaves to 
feed the fainting crowd in the midst of the sands of the 
desert, we find that in this crowd were many children ; 
the Gospel, enumerating those who had been mirac- 
ulously fed, adds, 'besides the children.'* 

"Later, when our Lord, some days before His Pas- 
sion, made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the 
children were there again in the crowd, in the front : 
these sweet children, who perhaps had been more than 
once blessed by Him, were there, joyful and delighted ; 



I 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 161 

they climbed the trees, they cut the branches and 
covered the road with them, they ran on before, they 
came and went, they announced His coming from afar, 
they mixed their cries with the acclamations of the 
people • their faces were radiant, and with the excite- 
ment and simplicity of their age, they came into the 
temple, and their cries echoed even in the holy place : 
'Hosanna to the Son of David.' And our Lord was 
pleased with their homage, and with the genuine 
shouting of the innocent voices ; and when the Phari- 
sees would have had them silenced, He justified them : 
'Is it not written,' said He to these hypocrites, 'that 
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God has per- 
fected praise?' " Dupanloup. 

"Among the objects which nature presents to us, 
there is nothing, perhaps, more beautiful than the 
morning star. The shades of night are thick upon the 
earth; the black clouds cover the firmament; the 
storm, it may be, has passed in all its fury, and swept 
over the world at the dark midnight hour; and men, 
awaked from their slumbers, have been terrified. The 
sailor on the vasty deep has almost despaired of that 
life which he has trusted to the treacherous element 
on which he lives. But, when the morning hour ap- 
proaches, a faint light is seen over the eastern hori- 
zon ; it brightens, crowning the Orient hills with a 
golden splendor. Out of that light — the promise of 
the coming day, there rises a pale, silvery, beautiful 
star; trembling, as if afraid to encroach upon the 
domain of night, it rises in its solitary beauty over the 
eastern hills ; it tells of the coming day ; it is the 
herald and messenger of the sun, that lies as yet 
hidden under the eastern waves, and under the deep 
shadows of the hills. The moment the sailor, in his 
storm-tossed bark, sees that star, he hails it as the sure 



162 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

harbinger of the coming day. The moment the lonely 
traveller, out on the desolate moorland, perceives it, 
he knows that presently his bewildered way will be 
brightened by the rising sun. The very hills seem to 
bow in reverence toward the messenger of the coming 
day. And the star, meantime, rises slowly above the 
horizon, as resplendent as the moon, because of the 
thickness of darkness around. Gradually, the aureola 
of the dawn of day spreads its light across the heavens ; 
until, at length, comes the splendor of the rising sun. 
Then the morning star gradually loses itself in the 
greater and brighter light. It is a beautiful thing to 
behold — the very ideal of modesty, in its solitary, 

trembling ascent towards heaven Can anything 

be imagined more beautiful than this? The world, as 
it were, prepared for its splendor, by the darkness of 
the night ; its beaming, full of hope, announcing the 
certainty of the coming day, another bright day of sun- 
shine, to gladden the hearts of men. It has the splen- 
dor of the reflected light of the sun which is to follow 
in its wake, and to rise upon that very point of the 
eastern horizon where the morning star rose before. 
The flowers, drooping during the night, open slowly 
their leaves, turning their petals towards the East. The 
lark, shaking the dew off his wing, rises out of the 
corn-field with a song of gladness, as if ambitious to 
catch sight of the rising sun before his beams can shine 
on earth. The herds in the fields rise from their 
nightly rest to greet the coming day. Can anything be 
imagined more beautiful in nature than the beauty of 
hope — the beauty of its brightness — the beauty of its 
silvery light, than the beauty of the message it brings 
to this darkened earth? No ; nothing can be imagined 
more beautiful in nature than the morning star, as it 
rises over the eastern hills." Father Burke. 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 163 

"There, then, in that most awful hour, knelt the 
Saviour of the world, putting off the defences of His 
divinity, dismissing His reluctant angels, who in myri- 
ads were ready at His call, and opening His arms, bar- 
ing His breast, sinless as He was, to the assaults of His 
foe, — of a foe whose breath was a pestilence, and 
whose embrace was an agony. There he knelt, motion- 
less and still, while the vile and horrible fiend clad His 
spirit in a robe steeped in all that is hateful and 
heinous in human crime, which clung close round His 
heart, and filled His conscience, and found its way into 
every sense and pore of His mind, and spread over 
Him a moral leprosy, till He almost felt Himself that 
which He never could be, and which His foe would fain 
have made him. Oh, the horror, when He looked, and 
did not know Himself, and felt as a foul and loathsome 
sinner, from His vivid perception of that mass of cor- 
ruption which poured over His head and ran down even 
to the skirts of His garments! Oh, the distraction, 
when He found His eyes, and hands, and feet, and lips, 
and heart, as if the members of the Evil One, and not 
of God ! Are these the hands of the Immaculate Lamb 
of God, once innocent, but now red with ten thousand 
barbarous deeds of blood? are these His lips, not utter- 
ing prayer, and praise, and holy blessings, but as if 
defiled with oaths, and blasphemies, and doctrines of 
devils? or His eyes, profaned as they are by all the evil 
visions and idolatrous fascinations for which men have 
abandoned their adorable Creator? And His ears, 
they ring with sounds of revelry and strife ; and His 
heart is frozen with avarice, and cruelty, and unbelief ; 
and His very memory is laden with every sin which 
has been committed since the fall, in all regions of the 
earth, with the pride of the old giants, and the lusts of 
the five cities, and the obduracy of Kgypt, and the am- 



i 



164 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

bition of Babel, and the unthankfulness and scorn of 
Israel. Oh, who does not know the misery of a haunt- 
ing thought which comes again and again, in spite of 
rejection, to annoy, if it cannot seduce? or of some 
odious and sickening imagination, in no sense one's 
own, but forced upon the mind from without? or of evil 
knowledge, gained with or without a man's fault, but 
which he would give a great price to be rid of once and 
for ever? And adversaries such as these gather around 
Thee, Blessed Lord, in millions now ; they come in 
troops more numerous than the locust or the palmer- 
worm, or the plagues of hail, and flies, and frogs, 
which were sent against Pharaoh. Of the living and 
of the dead and of the as yet unborn, of the lost and of 
the saved, of Thy people and of strangers, of sinners 
and of saints, all sins are there. Thy dearest are there, 

Thy saints and Thy chosen are upon Thee ; but 

not as comforters, but as accusers, like the friends of 
Job, 'sprinkling dust towards heaven,' and heaping 

curses on Thy head Hopes blighted, vows 

broken, lights quenched, warnings scorned, opportun- 
ities lost ; the innocent betrayed, the young hardened, 
the penitent relapsing, the just overcome, the aged 
failing; the sophistry of misbelief, the wilfulness of 
passion, the obduracy of pride, the tyranny of habit, 
the canker of remorse, the wasting fever of care, the 
anguish of shame, the pining of disappointment, the 
sickness of despair; such cruel, such pitiable spec- 
tacles, such heart-rending, revolting, detestable, mad- 
dening scenes ; nay, the haggard faces, the convulsed 
lips, the flushed cheek, the dark brow of the willing 
slaves of evil, they are all before Him now ; they are 
upon Him and in Him." Cardinal Newman. 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 165 

"St. John and St. Peter — the one the symbol of the 
contemplative, the other of the practical life — are un- 
doubtedly the grandest and most attractive figures in 
that Apostolic band. The character of St. John has 
been often mistaken. Filled as he was with a most 
divine tenderness — realizing as he did to a greater ex- 
tent than any (other) of the Apostles the full depth 
and significance of our Lord's new commandment — 
rich as his Epistles and his Gospel are with a medita- 
tive and absorbing reverence — dear as he has ever 
been in consequence to the heart of the mystic and the 
saint — yet he was something indefinitely far removed 
from that effeminate pietist which has furnished the 
usual type under which he has been represented. The 
name Boanerges, or 'Sons of Thunder,' which he has 
shared with his brother James, their joint petition for 
precedence in the kingdom of God, their passionate 
request to call down fire from heaven on the offending 
village of the Samaritans, the burning energy of the 
patois in which the Apocalypse is written, the impetu- 
ous horror with which, according to tradition, St. John 
recoiled from the presence of the heretic Cerinthus, all 
show that in him was the spirit of the eagle, which, 
rather than the dove, has been his immemorial sym- 
bol. And since zeal and enthusiasm, dead as they are, 
and scorned in these days by an effete and comfortable 
religionism, yet have ever been indispensable instru- 
ments in spreading the Kingdom of Heaven, doubtless 
it was the existence of these elements in his character, 
side by side with tenderness and devotion, which en- 
deared him so greatly to his Master, and made him the 
'disciple whom Jesus loved.' The wonderful depth 
and power of his imagination, the rare combination of 
contemplativeness and passion, of strength and sweet- 
ness, in the same soul — the perfect faith which in- 



166 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

spired his devotion, and the perfect love which pre- 
cluded fear — these were the gifts and graces which 
rendered him worthy of leaning his young head on the 
bosom of his Lord. 

"Nor is his friend St. Peter a less interesting study. 
We shall have many opportunities of observing the 
generous, impetuous, wavering, noble impulses of his 
thoroughly human but most lovable disposition. Let 
the brief but vivid summary of another now suffice. 'It 
would be hard to tell,' says Dr. Hamilton, 'whether 
most of his fervor flowed through the outlet of adora- 
tion or activity. His full heart put force and prompti- 
tude into every movement. Is his Master encompassed 
by fierce ruffians? — Peter's ardor flashes in his ready 
sword, and converts the Galilean boatman into the sol- 
dier instantaneous. Is there a rumor of a resurrection 
from Joseph's tomb? — John's nimbler foot distances 
his older friend ; but Peter's eagerness outruns the 
serene love of John, and past the gazing disciple he 
rushes into the vacant sepulchre. Is the risen Saviour 
on the strand ? — his comrades secure the net, and turn 
the vessel's head for shore ; but Peter plunges over the 
vessel's side, and struggling through the waves, in his 
dripping coat falls down at his Master's feet. Does 
Jesus say, "Bring of the fish ye have caught?" — ere 
anyone could anticipate the word, Peter's brawny arm 
is lugging the weltering net with its glittering spoil 
ashore, and every eager movement unwittingly is 
answering beforehand the question of his Lord, "Simon, 
lovest thou me ?" And that fervor is the best, which, 
like Peter's, and as occasion requires, can ascend in 
ecstatic ascriptions of adoration and praise, or follow 
Christ to prison and to death ; which can concentrate 
itself on feats of heroic devotion, or distribute itself in 
the affectionate assiduities of a miscellaneous in- 
dustry.'" Dean Farrar. 






CHAPTER XI. 
Exposition in General. 

Exposition, argumentation, and persua- 
sion give their names to three so-called 
"forms" of literary composition. Exposi- 
tion removes ignorance or doubt regarding 
some truth; argumentation convinces an 
adversary of his error; while persuasion 
leads the will to action in some definite 
direction. 

Argumentation has no place in a normal 
sermon intended for a Catholic audience. 
There may be error as to one or other re- 
vealed truth; but it must be removed by 
exposition, that is, by a clear, authoritative 
statement of the teaching of the Church re- 
garding it. 

Exposition enlightens the understanding ; 
persuasion moves the will. This broad, 
well defined distinction, however correct in 
itself, has led many preachers into serious 
errors and given rise to a very prevalent 
(167) 



168 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

defect in sacred oratory. It is true that re- 
vealed doctrine must be expounded to the 
understanding, and also impressed on the 
will as a vital principle of action. It is 
true, then, as a consequence, that exposi- 
tion and persuasion are essential elements 
of a sermon. But it is not true that one 
part of it should be devoted exclusively to 
exposition and another to persuasion. The 
two chief faculties of the soul, the under- 
standing and the will, always work simul- 
taneously, so that neither is ever wholly 
quiescent in any mental operation. Even 
in the most abstract reasoning there is an 
undercurrent of interest, gratification, or 
repulsion that denotes the activity of the 
will, though the intellect is the principal 
operator. Keeping this truth in mind, the 
preacher must adapt his exposition of doc- 
trine to the will of his hearer as well as to 
his intellect. In other words, he must not 
only avoid everything in expression and 
delivery that would alienate the will, but he 
must so shape his teaching as to conciliate 
and please it. The best way of doing this 
is to create in the hearer that intellectual 
satisfaction which always comes from the 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 169 

first firm grasp of an interesting idea or 
truth. (This satisfaction, though called in- 
tellectual, is in reality a state of the will, 
not of the intellect.) 

The prosiness of sermons comes chiefly 
from preachers ignoring the exigencies of 
the will while the intellect is being in- 
structed. They know that if the will be 
not moved to some definite action, the end 
of the sermon is not attained; but they 
seem not to know that a first and most 
necessary step to move the will is to con- 
ciliate and please it. Hence they write and 
deliver theological essays of more or less 
merit, but they do not preach. 

Example. In the following extract from 
a sermon on the Church, the defect of ad- 
dressing the intellect exclusively is manifest. 
The ideas contained in it are commonplace 
and uninteresting, and the style is dry and 
unemotional. Besides, part of the doctrine 
enunciated contains a false assumption. 

". . . . I have, therefore, determined to- 
day briefly to recall to your minds the ar- 
guments which underlie our believe in the 
Catholic Church as the true Church of 
Christ The arguments on which our 



170 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

faith in the Catholic Church is based we 
shall find contained in the answer to the 
following two questions, which will form 
the subject and division of my discourse — 

1. f Did Christ establish a Church? 

2. Which is the true Church established 
by Christ? 

"1. Has Christ established a Church? 

'i. Christ is, as you know, the Son of 
God, true God and true man, our Re- 
deemer, or, as He Himself says: the way, 
the truth, and the life ; the way on which 
we must walk ; the truth which we must be- 
lieve ; and the life which must quicken our 
souls, if we would attain our supernatural 
end. But Christ is the Redeemer, not only 
of those with whom He conversed here on 
earth, but of all men of all ages. It was, 
therefore, His duty to provide that not only 
those of His own time, but all men of all 
times might find the way, the truth and the 
life, and thus be made partakers of the 
work of Redemption. For this end, there- 
fore, He must have provided some reliable 
and efficacious means, " etc., etc. 

It is of vital importance, then, to the suc- 
cess of a sermon that our exposition of doc- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 171 

trine or duty conciliate the will, at the same 
time that it enlightens and satisfies the in- 
tellect. It should, therefore, be persiiasive. 
As its aim is essentially practical — some 
definite spiritual good of the hearer — all 
abstract thought must be excluded from it 
that is not directed to, and does not cul- 
minate in, some salutary act of the will. In 
this respect the exposition of a sermon dif- 
fers fundamentally from the exposition of 
treatises and essays and even of discourses. 
Exposition may be engaged either with 
terms or with truths. Often, indeed, the 
meaning of a truth is best given by defining 
and explaining the terms in which it is 
enunciated; but, unlike terms, truths have 
not to be merely defined — they have also to 
be illustrated and enforced. Terms, or 
words, are sometimes so clear and elemen- 
tary, that to define them would be to trifle 
with the patience of the audience. In such 
case, of course, they are not to be defined ; 
yet, as I have said in a previous chapter, it 
is not safe to credit an audience with much 
accurate knowledge even of simple words 
when they express abstract ideas; and in 
case of doubt it is better to run the risk of 



172 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

being a little tedious, than to omit anything 
necessary for a thorough, satisfactory know- 
ledge of the truth expounded. 

Exposition includes everything that 
throws light on the proposition, or theme, 
of a sermon. Hence it should contain 
1. a clear, comprehensive knowledge of the 
truth propounded; 2. an account of its 
origin and history; and 3. it should let in 
on it all the light that can be drawn from 
example, comparison, contrast, analogy, 
etc.- Definition, history, and illustration 
may then be taken as the main forms of 
Exposition. I deliberately omit argumen- 
tation, as I speak throughout this work 
only of a sermon preached to a Catholic 
audience which is not permitted to enter- 
tain doubts on matters of faith. Argumen- 
tation implies opposition or doubt in the 
mind of the hearer ; and it is wholly out of 
place where no one either doubts or resists. 
However, under the head of " history " I in- 
tend that the preacher should give every- 
thing that is now given in the form of proof 
or argument. 

The definition, history and illustration of 
a doctrine contain everything that needs to 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 173 

be said for its fullest and most exhaustive 
elucidation. As these forms of Exposition 
correspond substantially with the loci of 
Aristotle, we may feel assured that outside 
the teaching classified and included under 
them, no further popular teaching is neces- 
sary or, perhaps, even possible to a 
preacher. Some sacred orators, indeed, 
have aspired to soar above the beaten log- 
ical course determined by the greatest mind 
of antiquity and followed by minds but 
slightly less great than his. Yet, although 
they may have dazzled and attracted, they 
have notably failed to produce permanent 
practical results. Icarus with sail or oars 
might have reached Sicily in safety: rely- 
ing on artificial wings, he was doomed to 
fail. 

The loci, or topics, of Aristotle, summar- 
ized under the three heads definition, history 
and illustration, are divided into intrinsic 
and extrinsic. The former are given in the 
following words by Kleutgen: u Ex locis in- 
trinsecis alii in ipsa rei natara et nomine siti 
sunt: definitio, genus, forma, enumeratio par- 
Mum, notatio et conjugatto; alii in Us, quae 
cum re connexa sunt: causae, ejfecta, ante- 



174 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

cedentia y consequential adjuncta; alii denique 
in collatione rei cam aliis: comparatio, simili- 
tudo et contraria. Further on he divides the 
loci extrinseci into those that are common to 
all oratory and those that are special to 
each kind. The former are testimony and 
example; the latter (for preaching), Sacred 
Scripture, the Fathers, Theology, Church 
History, and approved writers on Christian 
life. 

NOTE. Careful study of our best and most popular 
pulpit orators show us that they were guided, consci- 
ously or unconsciously, in their finding and arrange- 
ment of expository matter by the Aristotelian topics. 
The two most eminent preachers of the present cen- 
tury, Pere L,acordaire and Father Burke, followed 
closely the scholastic method of exposition, which is 
itself cast in the Stagirite mold. I cannot, then, agree 
with Dr. Phelps in the following remarks : "The orator- 
ical instinct, at least, claims freedom from such helps" 
(the topics of Aristotle). "All that criticism can do, 
therefore, for its assistance in the matter of invention, 
is to direct it to the cultivation of the thinking power. 
In actual composing, a writer must take what comes to 
him, with no such elaborate searching in prescribed 
channels of inquiry. I know nothing of any process 
of successful composition which has not in it a large 
infusion of the element which the world calls chance. 
As a Christian preacher, I willingly give to it a more 
sacred name. That preacher is not to be envied who 
knows nothing in his own experience of a secondary 
fulfillment of the promise : It shall be given to you in 



Manual of Sacred, BJietoric. 175 

that same hour what ye shall speak. Yet divine sug- 
gestion uses, not ignores, the laws of mind." 

Besides the all-important quality of per- 
suasiveness of which I have already spoken, 
Exposition should also possess the qualities 
of simplicity, clearness, and conciseness. 
These qualities need no explanation, and 
they will never be wanting if we observe 
two precautions, the first, to avoid mistify- 
ing, and the second, to avoid boring, our 
audience. 




CHAPTER XII. 
Definition. 

Definition is the groundwork of exposi- 
tion. Its subject-matter is words, and its 
object to give a clear, distinct, complete, 
and comprehensive knowledge of them and 
of what they stand for. 

Words may be considered in themselves 
or in the things they stand for. When con- 
sidered in themselves, their definition is 
called nominal; when considered in the 
things they stand for, it is called real. A 
nominal definition may be taken from the 
etymology of the word defined, or it may 
give the meaning ordinarily attached to it, 
or it may explain the special sense in which 
the speaker or writer uses the term. A real 
definition goes behind the name to the 
thing signified by it, of which it gives a 
clear, distinct, complete, and comprehen- 
sive notion. 

Note. A clear notion of a thing enables us to distin- 
guish it from everything else. A distinct notion con- 
tains all the essential elements that constitute the 

(176) 



Manual of Sacred Ehetoric. 177 

thing. A notion is said to be complete when we can 
analyze its essential elements down to their simplest 
forms. Finally, a comprehensive notion is not only 
clear, distinct, and complete ; but it includes also the 
knowledge as well of the causes and effects of the 
thing, as of its properties and accidents, and its rela- 
tions to cognate things. Zigliara. 

(Scholastic philosophy calls no notion 
comprehensive that does not contain the 
knowledge of the relations of the thing 
known "ad ordinem totius imiversi." Snch 
knowledge is beyond the reach of human 
intelligence.) 

A nominal definition is sometimes useful 
as an introduction of the thing to be de- 
fined. It may also help to enforce a 
motive; as when we say: "You are Christi- 
ans, that is, followers — disciples of Christ. 
You glory in the name ; yet what glory is 
there in a name that condemns you! — a 
name that has nothing in your lives to 
justify it, but everything to discredit and 
contradict it?" Any further use of the 
nominal definition generally savors of 
pedantry and should be avoided. 

The real definition, therefore, is the one 
with which we have mostly to do here. It 
is of two kinds, logical and rhetorical. A 
logical definition confines itself to giving 



178 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

the essential, classified elements of the 
thing defined. A rhetorical definition goes 
far beyond this. It explains everything 
about an object that is required to have a 
clear, distinct, complete and comprehensive 
knowledge of it. It gives not only its parts 
and divisions, but its characteristics, its 
properties and qualities, its cause and 
effects. Furthermore, if any of these de- 
tails be unfamiliar to the audience, or if 
time be needed to convey a deeper impres- 
sion of it, the speaker or writer keeps turn- 
ing it over and over by the ordinary rules 
of amplification, until he is satisfied that he 
has made it as distinct and luminous as the 
occasion requires. The preacher, in a word, 
is allowed unrestricted use of every expedi- 
ent and form of composition — illustration, 
narration, description — to make his rhetor- 
ical definition as full and complete as pos- 
sible. 

Example of logical definition : Faith is a 
theological virtue infused by Gi-od, inclining 
us to assent firmly, on account of His truth- 
fulness, to all that He has revealed and 
proposes to us through the Church for our 
belief. 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 179 

Example of rhetorical definition: Faith 
"is assenting to a doctrine as true, which 
we do not see, which we cannot prove, be- 
cause God says it is true, who cannot lie. 
And further than this, since Grod says it is 
true, not with His own voice, but by the 
voice of His messengers, it is assenting to 
what man says, not simply viewed as a 
man, but to what he is commissioned to de- 
clare, as a messenger, prophet, or ambassa- 
dor from God. In the ordinary course of 
this world we account things true either be- 
cause we see them, or because we can per- 
ceive that they follow and are deducible 
from what we do see ; that is, we gain truth 
by sight or by reason, not by faith. You 
will say indeed, that we accept a number of 
things which we cannot prove or see, on the 
word of others ; certainly, but then we ac- 
cept what they say only as the word of 
man ; and we have not commonly that ab- 
solute and unreserved confidence in them, 
which nothing can shake. We know that 
man is open to mistake, and we are always 
glad to find some confirmation of what he 
says, from other quarters, in any important 
matter ; or we receive his information with 



180 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

negligence and unconcern, as something of 
little consequence, as a matter of opinion; 
or, if we act upon it, it is as a matter of 
prudence, thinking it best and safest to do 
so. We take his word for what it is worth, 
and we use it either according to our neces- 
sity, or its probability. We keep the deci- 
sion in our own hands, and reserve to our- 
selves the right of re-opening the question 
whenever we please. This is very different 
from Divine faith; he who believes that 
G-od is true, and that this is His word, 
which He has committed to man, has no 
doubt at all. He is as certain that the doc- 
trine taught is true, as that Grod is true; 
and he is certain, because G-od is true, 
because Grod has spoken, not because he 
sees its truth or can prove its truth. That 
is, faith has two peculiarities; — it is most 
certain, decided, positive, immovable in its 
assent, and it gives this assent not because 
it sees with the eye, or sees with the reason, 
but because it receives the tidings from one 
who comes from Grod." (From Cardinal 
Newman's Discourse on Faith and Private 
Judgment. ) 

Note. From the foregoing examples two main dis- 
tinctions will be easily inferred between a logical and a 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 181 

rhetorical definition. In the logical definition, it is 
the mental idea of the thing, not the thing itself, that 
we classify and define. In the rhetorical definition, 
we go straight to the thing itself and explain it in its 
most concrete form. In the former, faith is called a 
virtue, in the latter, it is called an assenting ; virtue 
being the class name of the idea, while assenting is the 
concrete name of the mental act itself. The second 
distinction is, that the logical definition gives no ex- 
planation of its terms, and is condensed, formal, and 
purely intellectual ; while the rhetorical definition is 
chiefly taken up with informal, discursive and popular 
explanation of everything necessary to place the object 
before the hearer in as clear and interesting a form as 
possible. 

Logical definition is absolutely necessary 
for the preacher's own guidance, but it is 
generally too condensed and abstract for 
popular use. It may, indeed, be given as 
the summary and conclusion of a rhetorical 
definition; but then all its terms should 
have been previously explained, so that the 
hearer would have no difficulty in under- 
standing it. It may be given even at the 
beginning after the statement of the propo- 
sition, provided it has become familiar to 
the audience through the words of the cate- 
chism. In this case the people are not be- 
wildered by strange words; and they are 
pleased to receive a fuller and deeper know- 



182 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

ledge of formulae which they once learned, 
perhaps without much comprehension of 
their meaning. Indeed, a preacher or cate- 
chist should adhere as closely as possible to 
the words of the catechism in all his defini- 
tions and divisions. Making the catechism 
his basis, he will find ample opportunity in 
the development and illustration of its 
words for the grandest display of eloquence 
of which he is capable. 

Notwithstanding the necessity of logical 
definition for the preacher's own use, most 
care and labor must be expended on rhetor- 
ical definition. The primary aim of this is 
to bring the thing explained into the widest 
relation with the previous knowledge ac- 
quired by the audience. Not only scientific 
but popular knowledge advances from the 
known to the unknown. Hence it is the 
duty of the preacher to know the limits of 
his people's information on doctrinal and 
moral subjects, that he may connect what 
he teaches with what has been already 
taught them. 

Ehetorical definition should be as con- 
crete as it can be made. People are not in- 
terested in abstractions and often have a 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 183 

difficulty in understanding them. Leave, 
then, those abstract qualities in the subject 
to which they belong, and describe the sub- 
ject as affected or modified by them. You 
will thus impress a more vivid and lasting 
idea of them than you would do by the 
most elaborate and detailed definition of 
them taken apart by themselves. In fact, 
the uneducated mind deals in abstractions 
more than is generally thought; but the 
abstractions are not formally separated 
from their subject — they are thought of 
where they are, to the exclusion, however, 
of all thought of other qualities or elements. 
Describe even to a child a truthful man, 
and it will think, not on the man's height, 
or age, or social standing, or personal ap- 
pearance, but of something in him that 
keeps him from lying and makes him tell 
the truth. The child's mind really ab- 
stracts, dwells upon, admires, and possibly 
resolves to imitate the quality of truthful- 
ness in that man, and it does all this uncon- 
sciously and spontaneously, because such 
abstraction is inseparable from the act of 
thinking. But speak of truth to that 
same child and define it as simply and as 



184 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

fully as you can : yet you will find that you 
stimulate no interest in it, and that you 
have much difficulty in holding its attention 
on your words. Just as we deal with this 
child, have we also to deal with a grown up 
audience. Wherever it is possible, we must 
present persons or objects, not abstractions, 
to them. 

Note. It may be objected that description of a per- 
son or a mental state cannot be called definition. Cer- 
tainly not ; but it can be used for the purpose of defini- 
tion. It can portray the living subject to which be- 
longs the abstraction — the virtue, vice, grace, doctrine 
— we are explaining ; and when the attention of the 
audience is fixed on that abstraction, not as an abstrac- 
tion, but as a feature of the subject portrayed, then the 
proper work of definition begins. 

Illusteation. In Cardinal Newman's 
Discourses there is scarcely any logical, 
and, apparently, little rhetorical, definition. 
Yet he defines through his descriptions the 
finest shades of doctrine with accuracy and 
fulness. His delineation of Magdalen as a 
type of love gives us all the essential ele- 
ments of the virtue, indirectly indeed, but 
much more vividly and forcibly than any 
formal definition could give them. I give 
only a part of the passage here. It is to be 
found in the Discourse on Purity and Love. 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 185 

" There is an illustrious third in Script- 
ure, whom we must associate with these 
two great Apostles 7 ' (St. Peter and St. 
Paul), "when we speak of the saints of 
penance and love. Who is it but the loving 
Magdalen? Who is it so fully instances 
what I am showing, as 'the woman who 
was a sinner', who watered the Lord's feet 
with her tears, and dried them with her 
hair, and anointed them with precious oint- 
ment i What a time for such an act! She, 
who had come into the room, as if for a 
festive purpose, to go about an act of 

penance! But, lo, a wondrous sight! 

was it a sudden inspiration, or a mature re- 
solve? was it an act of the moment, or the 
result of a long conflict? — but behold, that 
poor, many - colored child of guilt ap- 
proaches to crown with her sweet ointment 
the head of Him to whom the feast was 
given; and see, she has stayed her hand. 
She has looked, and she discerns the Im- 
maculate, the Virgin's Son, 'the brightness 
of the Eternal Light, and the spotless mir- 
ror of God's majesty'. She looks, and she 
recognizes the Ancient of Days, the Lord of 
life and death, her Judge; and again she 



186 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

looks, and she sees in His face and in His 
mien a beauty, and a sweetness, awful, 
serene, majestic, more than that of the sons 
of men, which paled all the splendor of that 
festive room. Again she looks, timidly yet 
eagerly, and she discerns in His eye, and in 
His smile, the loving-kindness, the tender- 
ness, the compassion, the mercy of the 
Saviour of men. She looks at herself, and 
oh ! how vile, how hideous is she, who but 
now was so vain of her attractions ! — how 
withered is that comeliness, of which the 
praises ran through the mouths of her ad- 
mirers — how loathsome has become the 
breath, which hitherto she thought so 
fragrant, savoring only of those seven bad 
spirits which dwell within her ! And there 
she would have stayed, there she would 
have sunk on the earth, wrapped in her 
confusion and in her despair, had she not 
cast one glance again on that all-loving, all- 
forgiving Countenance. He is looking at 
her: it is the Shepherd looking at the lost 
sheep, and the lost sheep surrenders herself 
to Him. He speaks not, but He eyes her ; 
and she draws nearer to Him. Eejoice, ye 
Angels, she draws near, seeing nothing but 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 187 

Hini, and caring neither for the scorn of 
the proud, nor the jests of the profligate. 
She draws near, not knowing whether she 
shall be saved or not, not knowing whether 
she shall be received, or what will become 
of her; this only knowing that He is the 
Fount of holiness and truth, as of mercy, 
and salvation; to whom should she go, but 
to Him who hath the words of eternal life? 

Wonderful meeting between what 

was most base and what is most pure! 
Those wanton hands, those polluted lips, 
have touched, have kissed the feet of the 
Eternal, and He shrank not from the 
homage. And as she hung over them, and 
as she moistened them from her full eyes, 
how did her love for One so great, yet so 
gentle, wax vehement within her, lighting 
up a flame which never was to die from that 
moment, even for ever! and what excess 
did it reach, when He recorded before all 
men her forgiveness, and the cause of it! 
'Many sins are forgiven her, for she loved 
much; but to whom less is forgiven, the 
same loveth less. And He said unto her, 
Thy sins are forgiven thee ; thy faith has 
made thee safe, go in peace/ 



188 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

"Henceforth, my brethren, love was to 
her, as to St. Augustine and to St. Ignatius 
Loyola afterwards (great penitents in their 
own time), as a wound in the soul, so full 
of desire as to become anguish. She could 
not live out of the presence of Him in 
whom her joy lay: her spirit languished 
after Him, when she saw him not; and 
waited on Him silently, reverently, wist- 
fully, when she was in His blissful presence. 
We read of her (if it was she), on one oc- 
casion, sitting at His feet to hear His words 
and of His testifying that she had chosen 
that best part which should not be taken 
away from her " 

On the surface there is no definition here, 
nothing more, indeed, than a masterly de- 
scription of Magdalen's conversion. But in 
the under-current of thought, always clearly 
discernible in this eminent preacher's style, 
you can perceive a conscious purpose to de- 
fine or point out the principal stages from 
the depths of sin to the heights of repentant 
love. In carrying out this purpose, he fol- 
lows closely the teaching of St. Thomas as 
given in the Summa (III. quaest. 85, 
art. 5). 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 189 

The first office of a rhetorical definition is 
to explain satisfactorily every term of the 
proposition or of the part of it (first, second, 
third point) with which we are dealing. In 
moral sermons it may frequently seem to us 
that definition is not required — that it is 
not only tedious, but nugatory and useless. 
For instance: here is the proposition of a 
sermon on the Unprofitable Servant: "Our 
virtue must be progressive in ourselves ; it 
must be fruitful in others. 7 ' (Cardinal 
Wiseman, Sermons on Moral Subjects.) 
What room, it may be asked, is here for 
definition? The audience know what virtue 
is, and in what progressiveness and fruit- 
fulness consist; why then explain these 
simple terms to them? I acknowledge that 
simple every-day words need no definition 
or explanation ; I acknowledge also that we 
should carefully avoid the appearance of 
affrontiDg our hearers by addressing them 
as we should a kindergarten class: but I 
say, that there are not many words used in 
explaining matters of faith or conduct that 
do not need to be defined. Take, for ex- 
ample, the word virtue in the foregoing pro- 
position: how few have a definite idea of 



190 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

it? yet how much instruction is contained 
even in the few lines that any compendium 
of theology gives about it? "Virtue is the 
habit of acting in accordance with right 
order. It is natural or supernatural, in- 
fused or acquired, theological or moral. 
There are four moral virtues called cardinal, 
under which all other moral virtues may be 
classed: prudence, justice, fortitude and 
temperance." Such definitions supply 
numerous vistas of thought branching off 
from our theme — vistas full of interest and 
suggestion to the audience. 

The second office of rhetorical definition 
is to give the parts and divisions of the ob- 
ject defined. By parts I mean here the 
essential elements of the object; and by 
divisions, the enumeration of all those par- 
ticular objects which are included in the 
general object or to which the name of the 
general object may be applied. For ex- 
ample, in the foregoing definition of virtue, 
the object defined — virtue — has two parts, 
or essential elements, namely, habit and 
conformity to right order. Its divisions are 
all the various habits to which the name 
virtue may be applied. Or again: the es- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 191 

sential elements of man are soul and body ; 
the divisions of man are all individuals 
(arranged in classes) to whom the name of 
man can be extended. 

Division , in the sense just explained, is 
most useful in giving a clear, distinct, and 
complete idea of the object defined. You 
are speaking of mortal sin, for instance, and 
you wish to define the word mortal. You 
say that it is taken from a Latin word signi- 
fying death. Mortal sin then, is sin causing 
death. Now there are two kinds of death, 
the death of the soul and the death of the 
body ; and the death caused by mortal sin 
is the former kind of death — the death of 
the soul. This form of definition is abso- 
lutely necessary for the full explanation of 
the different species of virtues and vices, 
and for the proper understanding of the 
numeric distinction of sins. 

Rhetorical definition does not confine it- 
self to giving the essence of the object de- 
fined ; it frequently gives also external mani- 
festations of it, properties that flow from 
the essence although not a part of it, and 
even qualities, sometimes but not always 
found in it. 



192 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

Illustrations. 1. Father Burke, after 
showing that Christ always speaks of His 
Church as a kingdom which He was to 
establish upon this earth, goes on to define 
what is contained in this idea of a kingdom. 
He says: , "Now, if we once let into our 
minds the idea that the Church of Christ is 
a kingdom, we must at once admit into the 
idea of the Church an organization which is 
necessary for every kingdom upon this 
earth. And what is the first element? I 
answer that the first element of a nation is 
to have a head or ruler — call him what you 
will — elect him as you will. Is it a republic? 
it must have a president. Is it a monarchy? 
it must have its king. Is it an empire? it 
must have its emperor; and so on. But the 
moment you imagine a State or kingdom of 
any kind without a head, that moment you 
destroy out of your mind the very idea of a 
State united for certain purposes and 
governed by certain known and acknowl- 
edged ideas called laws. That head of the 
nation must be the supreme tribunal of the 
nation. From him, in his executive office, 
all subordinate officers hold their power; 
and even though he be elected by the 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 193 

people, and chosen from among the people, 
the moment he is set at the head of the 
State or nation, that moment he is the re- 
presentative or embodiment of the fountain 
of authority. Every one wielding power 
within that nation must bow to him. Every 
one exercising jurisdiction within that nation 
must derive it from him. He, I say again, 
may derive it even from the choice of the 
people; but when he is thus elevated, he 
forms one unit, to which everything in the 
State is bound to look up. This is the very 
first idea and notion which the word State 
or kingdom involves. " 

2. The same preacher defines in the fol- 
lowing words the kind of progress which 
the Church condemns: "There is another 
kind of progress ; and the Church is opposed 
to it. G-od is opposed to it. What is it? 
It is progress of a pseudo-intellectual kind. 
It is progress that involves that diabolical 
'Spiritualism' — dealing with spirits, 
whether good or bad — and the super- 
stition that arises from it 5 it is the progress 
that results in what is called the doctrine 
of 'free love' — ■ the progress that unsexes 
the woman ; that sends her into dissecting 



194 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

rooms, or such unwomanly places, and 
there debauches her mind, while she is 
said to be in the pursuit of knowledge; 
it is the progress that asserts that children 
are to be brought up from their earliest 
infancy in such independence, that they 
are allowed to give the lie to their father 
or their mother; it is the progress that 
would assert that politics is a game that 
men are to enter into for their own private 
aggrandizement and wealth; it is the pro- 
gress that would assert that, in commercial 
intercourse, a man may do a smart thing; 
although there may be a little tinge of 
roguery in it ; it is the progress that would 
assert that every man is free to think as 
he likes on every subject — all this the 
Church is opposed to." 

3. Father Pottgeisser gives the following 
symptoms of lukewarmness, which he calls 
a disease of the soul. It will be observed 
that none of them, taken apart from the 
others, is an essential characteristic, but 
merely an accidental quality; yet all com- 
bined present a true picture of a tepid man. 
It should be noted also that rhetorical de- 
finition takes here the form of description, 
being the portrayal of a mental state. 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 195 

"The lukewarm Christian is not sensible 
of his malady, because his conscience is be- 
numbed. He has a callous conscience. His 
constant neglect of the service of Grod, the 
numberless willful venial sins, which he 
continued to commit daily, have blunted 
the edge of his conscience and rendered it 
all but insensible. His conscience does not 
reproach him, as long as he perceives no 
grievous guilt. He has not committed 
murder, or grave theft, or dishonesty; 
neither has he committed adultery, nor is 
he given to drunkenness ; he entertains no 
serious enmities ; in short, there is nothing 
that weighs heavily on his conscience. But 
his. pride and envy, his petty dishonesties, 
his rather free manner in conversation and 
society, his intemperance, which never 
reaches the point of intoxication — all these, 
and a thousand other venial sins have no 
terror for his conscience. He has been used 
to bear all this without misgiving. His 
conscience is mute, because he carefully 
avoids everything that awakens it to the 
danger of his state. If he happens to be 
present at a sermon, he either abandons 
himself to all manner of distractions, or 



1 96 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

listens only in the capacity of a critic, whom 
the matter itself does not concern. He 
never takes a pious book into his hands the 
whole year round. He never associates 
with pious and fervent Christians; such 
society is too dull for him. Even the Sacra- 
ment of Penance has no influence over him ; 
for whatever we may think of the worthiness 
of his confessions, it is certain that his dis- 
position is not such as to secure large and 
lasting fruit. 77 

Rhetorical definition aims at giving a 
thorough, comprehensive knowledge of the 
thing defined. Hence it explains the thing 
not only in itself but also in its cause or 
reason and in its effects. Cause or reason, 
however, means here only such account of 
the truth defined as makes it appear fitting, 
probable, plausible to the hearer. It usually 
consists in one or two texts of Scripture, or 
in its apt adjustment with something al- 
ready known or admitted. The effects also 
to be given are only those that are immed- 
iate and obvious and have an important 
bearing on the definite object of the 
sermon. 

Examples. 1. St. Bernard, speaking of 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 197 

Heaven, says that there God is to His elect 
the fulness of light to the intellect, the ful- 
ness of peace to the will, and the fulness of 
duration to the memory. The fulness of 
light is thus denned : i 'Ascend into Heaven, 
O human intelligence: behold there the 
light, behold there the truth unclouded, be- 
hold there all thy longings satisfied. When 
thou hast contemplated God in His nature 
and attributes, thou wilt be permitted to see 
Him in His three adorable Persons. The 
profound mysteries of the Incarnation, of 
predestination, of grace will be unveiled to 
thee*, thou wilt be shown the justice of 
God's dealings with the just as well as with 
sinners. What, exclaims St. Gregory, will 
be hidden from those who behold Him that 
seefch all things? Quid est quod non vident 
qui videntem omnia vident f We shall pene- 
trate, says St. Paul, to the inmost sanctuary 
within the veil — usque ad interiora velaminis ; 
where the sun has no setting and the moon 
no decrease; that is, the truth shines there 
with eternal splendor, visible and compre- 
hensible to all — the truth of things divine, 
the truth of things human, the truth of the 
uncomprehended things of this world and 



198 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

of eternity, the truth naked, absolute, 
entire, such as our intelligence demands. 
'In Thy light we shall see the light'.'' 

2. St. John Chrysostom, treating of the 
fear of Grod, says: "The fear of God regu- 
lates and controls the thoughts, shrinks 
from sin, is the safeguard of innocence, and 
the source of all good." 

Rhetorical definition has not completed 
its work when it has given the hearer a 
clear, distinct, complete, and comprehensive 
knowledge of the truth developed. It has 
still to stamp that knowledge on the mind 
and heart. A single blow of a hammer may 
fix the point of a nail in wood ; but it takes 
repeated blows to drive the nail home. This 
driving home process, as applied to the en- 
forcement of truth defined, is called in re- 
cent works on rhetoric amplification. "In 
the construction of the plan," writes Pro- 
fessor Grenung, "the main ideas of the dis- 
course have been determined, in their 
mutual relations, from beginning to end. 
As yet, however, they are expressed only in 
germ. They need to be taken up anew and 
endowed with life ; to be clothed in a fitting 
dress of explanatory, illustrative, and en- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 199 

forcing thought. This is the office of rheto- 
rical amplification. " Among the old rheto- 
ricians, the word was used in a much nar- 
rower sense. " Amplification says Cicero, 
u est gravior quaedam affirmatio, qae motu 
animorum conciliat in dicendo fidem." Rev. 
T. Potter, in his valuable work on Sacred 
Eloquence, confines amplification to the 
development of arguments. "Although," 
he writes, "the effect of our reasoning de- 
pends very much upon the due selection and 
arrangement of our arguments, it depends 
still more upon their amplification, or, in 
other words, upon the force, vigor, beauty, 
and practical application with which they 
are put." Dr. Phelps, on the other hand, 
does not use the word at all in his Theory 
of Preaching; and I think he is right. Its 
present acceptation in rhetoric makes it 
cover every process by which thought is de- 
veloped; it includes, therefore, the entire 
body of a discourse, and it would be illogical 
to narrow it to an aid or adjunct of de- 
finition. Therefore, whenever I shall have 
occasion to use the word I will use it 
only in its generic sense of expansion — 
enlargement. 



200 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Various means are adopted in preaching 
to give volume, body, force to a thought 
and to give the hearer time to take it in and 
digest and assimilate it. Rhetorical de- 
finition draws freely on the resources of 
Illustration for this purpose; but as we 
shall treat of these in the next chapter, we 
need not dwell on them here. There is one 
means, however, namely, Repetition, which 
is closely allied to definition, and is of suf- 
ficient importance to demand separate and 
detailed treatment. 

Repetition, indeed, in one or other of its 
forms is the ordinary method by which de- 
finition is enlarged. But it does not consist 
in mere reiteration; it adds something to 
the elucidation already given in definiteness, 
or volume, or impressiveness. It arrests 
the movement, or progressive growth, of 
thought in the sermon ; and should, there- 
fore, be sparingly employed. Though ab- 
solutely necessary to make definition effect- 
ive, it is from its very nature apt to become 
tiresome if not skilfully managed. The 
skill consists chiefly in adding something 
new and striking to the central thought, 
and, as far as possible, putting what is 
added in the climactic order. 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 201 

When preparing this part of a sermon, 
we must not expect to derive any direct 
help from rhetorical rules or suggestions. 
The truth to be expanded and enforced by 
repetition must be a live, fecund, spiritual 
thought ; and we must have a glowing, pas- 
sionate desire and resolve to plant it deep in 
the souls of our hearers. Such desire will 
often urge to anomalous forms of repetition ; 
but often also it will be guided by rules that 
conviction and experience together with 
frequent use have made a second nature to 
us. Hence, it is advisable for young 
preachers to make themselves acquainted 
with those rules (as far as they can be for- 
mulated), and to exercise themselves fre- 
quently in the application of them. A 
better practice still would be to find out 
rules for repetition for one's self by reading 
and analyzing the sermons of eminent 
preachers, and also by studying minutely 
those numerous passages of Sacred Script- 
ure in which this mode of expansion and 
enforcement is employed with inimitable 
skill. 

NoTE. No book of sermons is required for this prac- 
tice. The Iyessons of the Breviary supply abundant 
examples of sublime Christian eloquence. Read espe- 



202 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

cially theextracts from St. John Chrysostom, St. Leo 
the Great and St. Bernard. 

The first and most usual mode of repeti- 
tion is the accumulation of predicates, each 
throwing light on the subject defined. We 
have an example of this mode in the thir- 
teenth chapter of the first Epistle to the 
Corinthians, too well known, perhaps, to be 
quoted here ; yet I give the words to make 
reference to them convenient. 

Charity is patient, is kind: Charity envieth not, 
dealeth not perversely : is not puffed up, is not am- 
bitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, 
thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth 
with the truth : beareth all things, beheveth all things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

Charity never falleth away : whether prophecies 
shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or know- 
ledge shall be destroyed. 

Here we have seven qualities or character- 
istics predicated of charity, namely, pati- 
ence, kindness, sympathy, strength, faith, 
hope, endurance. 

Another example of this form of repeti- 
tion is the following taken from Father 
Burke : 

"As the apostle pithily and forcibly puts it, 'Habe- 
mus altare'' — we have an altar — not merely a place of 
prayer, not merely a table whereon to commemorate in 
a shadowy and most inefficient manner the recollection 
of the greatest act that ever took place on this earth, 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 203 

but a true aud real altar of sacrifice, solemnly con- 
secrated with the outpouring of oil and the voice of 
prayer — an altar on which the blood of a victim flows 
in real sacrifice, an altar before which an accredited 
and anointed priest, sacrificing, takes his stand — an 
altar whereon is consummated the highest and the 
great central mystery of our religion — an altar, there- 
fore, of all places on this earth the most holy and the 
most solemn — an altar of the holy Catholic Church/' 

A second form of repetition is the expan- 
sion of the subject. If this be a generical 
term, the specific terms it contains or many 
of them are enumerated. St. Paul gives us 
an example of this form also in the eight 
chapter of his Epistle to the Eomans: 

"Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? 
shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? 

or danger? or persecution? or the sword? I am 

sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- 
cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of 
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Iyord." 

A third form is to repeat the subject or 
the predicate considered in various lights 
(essence, characteristics, sources, causes, 
effects, etc.) Thus, in the statement: 
Grace is necessary for salvation, the subject 
grace may be spoken of as divine mercy, 
God's helping hand, the Passion and death 
of Jesus Christ, or the Precious Blood, the 



204 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

wedding garment, etc. The predicate, too, 
may be expanded into these phrases: the 
only means of salvation ; our only hope of 
Heaven, of ever seeing our Father's face, of 
enjoying the society of the elect, of escap- 
ing eternal punishment, of attaining the 
end of our being. 

A fourth form enumerates various circum- 
stances of the subject or predicate, bringing 
it into greater distinctness. The following 
passage from Cardinal Newman illustrates 
this form : 

"Next, this follows from what I have said: — that 
since He is from everlasting, and has created all things 
from a certain beginning, He has lived in an eternity 
before He began to create anything. What a wonder- 
ful thought is this ! there was a state of things in 
which God was by Himself, and nothing else but He. 
There was no earth, no sky, no sun, no stars, no space, 
no time, no beings of any kind : no men, no Angels, 
no Seraphim. His throne was without ministers ; He 
was not waited on by any; all was silence, all was re- 
pose, there was nothing but God ; and this state con- 
tinued not for a while only, but for a measureless dura- 
tion ; it was a state which had ever been ; it was the 
rule of things, and creation had been an innovation 
upon it. Creation is, comparatively speaking, but of 
yesterday ; it has lasted a poor six thousand years, say 
sixty thousand, if you will, or six million, or six mil- 
lion million; what is this to eternity? nothing at all; 
not so much as a drop compared to the whole ocean, or 
a grain of sand compared to the whole earth. I say, 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 205 

through a whole eternity God was by Himself, with no 
other being but Himself; with nothing external to 
Himself, not working, but at rest, not speaking, not 
receiving homage from any, not glorified in creatures, 
but blessed in Himself and by Himself, and wanting 
nothing." 

The fifth form of repetition consists in 
denying to the subject or predicate some 
characteristics or qualities that might other- 
wise be attributed to it. We have an ex- 
ample of this in the passage from St. Paul 
on Charity, already quoted. There he de- 
clares the idea of charity to be irrecon- 
cilable with envy, boasting, vanity, ambi- 
tion, self-seeking, etc. Again: in a sermon 
on Meekness, this form might be advan- 
tageously used as follows: " Blessed are the 
meek ; blessed are they who do not resent 
injuries, who do not harbor malice, who 
return not evil for evil — blow for blow, 
who rejoice not in the misfortune of their 
enemy, who wish him no harm but every 
blessing, who when slighted or insulted 
give not way to the promptings of nature, 
but, trampling them under foot, rise to the 
sublimity of forgiveness. Blessed are the 
meek." 

In every form of repetition care must be 
taken to avoid the introduction of any new 



206 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

or independent statement that would draw 
off the mind from the truth presented, or 
dissipate the energy of attention. Much 
practical judgment is also required to deter- 
mine the extent to which repetition is to be 
used in the development of a truth. To 
give various presentments of every truth 
enunciated would as much outrage good 
taste, as to lay emphasis on every word in a 
sentence. Such excess would frustrate the 
end of repetition and emphasis alike. 

The habit of clear and accurate thinking 
is the foundation of clear and accurate de- 
finition, and is therefore an essential ele- 
ment in the equipment of every preacher. 
Six years' training in philosophy and the- 
ology might be reasonably thought suffici- 
ent to mould the seminarian's mind in such 
a habit ; yet we know from experience that 
it does not always do so. This is not the 
place to inquire into the cause of the failure ; 
but it will not be amiss to make here a few 
suggestions as to the best means of acquir- 
ing or preserving the habit I speak of. 
First, when collecting matter for your ser- 
mon, reject any thoughts, as unavailable, 
that you do not clearly and thoroughly un- 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 207 

derstand. Better a hundred times for the 
people is meagre and clear, than full and 
confused, knowledge. Secondly, draw a 
sharp line between your knowledge and 
your ignorance; and place on the side of 
ignorance whatever you are not sure of or 
cannot account for or cannot express ade- 
quately in clear and accurate language. 
Thirdly, cultivate mental activity by feeling 
dissatisfied with half truths and by sparing 
no reasonable effort to convert them into 
knowledge. Fourthly, read for the most 
part only books that will make you think. 
The habit of desultory reading, especially 
of newspapers and novels, leads inevitably 
to mental paralysis. Fifthly, aim at clear- 
ness and accuracy in ordinary conversation. 
Make no miserable pretense of knowing 
more than you do know. In the discussion, 
of social, political, or theological questions, 
strive not for victory per fas aut nefas: 
strive rather for truth and light. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Illustration. 

Illustration is the second stage in the pro- 
cess of exposition. In aim it agrees with 
definition, as both seek to make some truth 
as distinct and luminous as possible; but 
they differ in the means they adopt, as well 
as in the kind of knowledge they impart. 
Definition uses analysis of the truth itself; 
illustration uses comparison of it with re- 
lated truths. The former gives absolute 
knowledge of the truth ; the latter adds re- 
lative knowledge, that is, knowledge derived 
from the relations between the truth illus- 
trated and other truths previously acquired. 
The only relations that I shall dwell on here 
are those of similarity and contrast. 

NoTK. Deviation from the ordinary form of unim- 
passioned language to illustrate or enforce a truth is 
called a figure of speech. The old rhetoricians dis- 
tinguished about forty figures of speech which they di- 
vided almost equally into word-figures and thought- 
figures. Modern writers on the art of composition have 
wisely reduced that number to some twelve or fourteen. 
These they divide into two classes — those that promote 

(208) 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 209 

clearness and those whose object is emphasis. In the 
former they place metonomy, simile, metaphor, per- 
sonification, and allegory ; in the latter, exclamation, 
interrogation, apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, antithesis, 
epigram, and climax. Of course, these figures are as 
available and as necessary for preaching as they are for 
other forms of discourse. They should, therefore, be 
studied in books of rhetoric and the rules for their 
proper use should be applied in daily exercises until 
they become, as it were, a second nature to the young 
preacher. He must be careful, however, to exercise 
discretion and taste in employing them in his sermons. 
Hyperbole and irony are scarcely permissible in the 
pulpit ; and most figures of emphasis should be intro- 
duced only in the emotional part of a sermon. 

Illustration may be divided into figurative 
and non-figurative. As the former belongs 
to elementary rhetoric, it is not necessary 
to discuss it here; the latter, then, will 
form the subject-matter of this chapter. 

Non-figurative Illustration consists of com- 
parison, contrast, analogy, example, ex- 
perience, and quotation. These forms serve 
a double purpose they explain and they 
prove. In popular oratory, indeed, they 
are employed almost exclusively for argu- 
ment, to bring conviction home to an audi- 
ence. As we cannot recognize an attitude 
of unbelief or doubt toward our teaching, 
we must use them ostensibly for exposition 
alone. But this is not to prevent us from 



210 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

keeping in view and promoting their second- 
ary and indirect effect — the confirmation, 
roundness, and satisfactoriness they give to 
Catholic belief. 

A few words must be said here about as- 
sociation of ideas, because on this chiefly 
depends a preacher's success in illustration. 
Ideas and words have a very different sug- 
gestive power for different minds. To some 
all mental impressions are separate and al- 
most independent entities in the soul. 
G-eneral ideas or truths do not suggest any 
of the particular ideas or truths contained 
in them; objects are not associated with ob- 
jects, facts are not associated with facts; 
and, much less, neither facts, objects, 
words, nor ideas in one order are associated 
with those corresponding to them in another 
order. This mental sluggishness, whether 
natural or contracted, must be shaken off 
by all who aspire to become efficient 
preachers. Unless they do this, their 
sermons will be prosaic and uninteresting. 
They should study literature of the imagin- 
ative and impassioned type, and practise 
composition in it as frequently as possible. 
In ordinary conversation, they should keep 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 211 

their minds on the alert in active search of 
related truths, facts, etc., so as to be able 
to illustrate what they say by reference to 
previous knowledge. A good will and a 
strong determination to succeed will enable 
them in the end to so connect associated 
ideas that the conception of one will spon- 
taneously suggest the others. Among 
preachers I know no one who surpasses 
Massillon in this association of ideas. 

Note. In English literature, De Quincey and Ma- 
caulay stand high above all other writers of this 
century for their wealth of illustration. In the latter 
this was due to a prodigious memory ; the former 
attributes the characteristic in his case to "a logical 
instinct for feeling in a moment the secret analogies or 
parallelisms that connected things else apparently re- 
mote." In another place he tells us it "was due to the 
higher faculty of an electric aptitude for seizing ana- 
logies, and, by means of those aerial pontoons, passing 
over like lightning from one topic to another." (See 
Minto's Manual of English Prose Literature, p. 39.) 

If those I have spoken of above need to 
be stimulated to mental alertness, others run 
into the opposite extreme and have to be 
moderated. To these almost every pre- 
sentive word opens one or more vistas of 
related thought. They realize abstractions 
only as collections of associated concrete 
notions ; so that when an abstract term is 



212 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

mentioned, their minds see in it only the 
individual objects, facts, or ideas for which 
it stands. This class of men is the material 
out of which orators are made. But such 
singular power of word and thought 
association must be kept within bounds, or 
those gifted with it may easily degenerate 
into flippant, verbose talkers. They must 
be guided by the demands of good taste, of 
harmony and proportion of members, and 
of uniform growth in their sermons. 

Comparison bears a close resemblance to 
simile, so close, indeed, that each shades 
into the other and sometimes can scarcely 
be distinguished from it. In both, two ob- 
jects, facts, or truths are set side by side, 
resembling each other in one or more points. 
In comparison, however, those two objects, 
facts, or truths belong to the same class ; in 
simile, they belong to different classes. 
Thus, if I say, John is like James, I use 
comparison ; but if I say, John is brave as 
a lion, I use simile. 

NoTE. This rhetorical distinction need not be taken 
into account in preaching. What we are to look to is 
the appositeness and illustrative power of the relation. 

It is a revealed truth \ that the invisible 
world is clearly seen in the visible world 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 213 

around us. We are authorized, then, to 
prove and, a fortiori, to illustrate the truths 
of natural religion by the phenomena and 
laws of mind and matter. Even revealed 
truth may be illustrated by the same means, 
provided we do not encourage thereby a 
rationalizing spirit that would seek a reason 
for "the mystery of God the Father and 
of Christ Jesus, 77 formulated in the terms of 
a mathematical solution. Whatever may 
be the evolution of theology in the future, 
Christian faith must always be imperfect 
vision. Comparison illustrates either a 
majori or a pari. 

Exampi/es. "If in the green wood they do these 
things, what shall be done in the dry?" If earthly fire 
given for man's use be terrible to bear, what must 
eternal fire be, created not for comfort but for punish- 
ment? "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to 
have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should 
forget, yet will not I forget thee." "Did Abraham be- 
lieve that a son should be born to him of his aged 
wife? then Mary's faith must be held as greater when 
she accepted Gabriel's message. Did Judith consecrate 
her widowhood to God to the surprise of her people? 
much more did Mary, from her first youth, devote her 
virginity. Did Samuel, when a child, inhabit the 
temple, secluded from the world? Mary too was by her 
parents lodged in the same holy precincts, even at the 
age when children first can choose between good and 
evil. Was Solomon on his birth called 'dear to the 



214 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Lord?' and still not the destined Mother of God be 
dear to Him from the moment she was born? But 
further still ; St. John Baptist was sanctified by the 
Spirit before his birth ; shall Mary be only equal to 
him? is it not fitting that her privilege should surpass 
his? is it wonderful, if grace, which anticipated his 
birth by three mouths, should in her case run up to the 
very first moment of her being, outstrip the imputation 
of sin, and be beforehand with the usurpation of 
Satan?" Newman. 

When we place two objects, facts, or 
truths, — the one familiar and the other 
unfamiliar — side by side, and assert that 
certain characteristics or qualities of the 
former belong also to the latter, we illustrate 
by a pari comparison (or simile). For 
example, human and divine hope may be 
thus compared: " Suppose a boy hears of 
some toy capable of doing the most wonder- 
ful things. He feels at once an affection for 
that toy, he desires very much to have it; 
he determines to ask for it at the first oppor- 
tunity; he expects, nay, is sure that his 
father, if asked, will procure it for him. 
Here there are five distinct acts : love of the 
object, desire to have it, resolution to use 
the best means to secure it, expectation, 
and certainty. Now, instead of the toy put 
eternal happiness; instead of the earthly 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 215 

father put our Father who is in Heaven ; 
instead of the child's resolution, expec- 
tation , and confidence, put our resolution to 
pray, our patient expectation, and our abso- 
lute certainty that we shall receive what we 
ask : and we have all the essential elements 
of an act of Christian hope." The habit of 
hope may be illustrated in a similar manner 
by comparing it to the state of expectation 
in which the child lives awaiting the desired 
gift. 

The following from Cardinal Newman's 
Discourse on "Prospects of the Catholic 
Missioner" is an example of historical com- 
parison. 

"It is true, my brethren, this is a strange time, a 

strange place, for beginning our work Yes, it is 

all very strange to the world; but no new thing to 
her, the bride of the Lamb, whose very being and 
primary gifts are stranger in the eyes of unbelief, than 
any details, as to place of abode and method of pro- 
ceeding, in which they are manifested In such a 

time as this did the prince of the Apostles, the first 
Pope, advance toward the heathen city, where, under a 

Divine guidance, he was to fix his seat In such 

a time as this did the great Doctor, St. Gregory Nazi- 
anzen, he too an old man, a timid man, a retiring man, 
fond of solitude and books, and unpractised in the 
struggles of the world, suddenly appear in the Arian 
city of Constantinople ; and in despite of a fanatical 
populace, and an heretical clergy, preach the truth, 



216 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

and prevail — to his own wonder, and to the glory of 
that grace which is strong in weakness, and is ever 
nearest to its triumph when it is most despised. In 
such a time did another St. Gregory, the first Pope of 
the name, when all things were now failing, when bar- 
barians had occupied the earth, and fresh and more 
savage multitudes were pouring down, when pesti- 
lence, famine, and heresy ravaged far and near — op- 
pressed as he was with continual sickness, his bed his 
Pontifical Throne — in such a time did he rule, direct 
and consolidate the Church, in what he augured were 
the last moments of the world ; subduing Arians in 
Spain, Donatists in Africa, a third heresy in Egypt, a 
fourth in Gaul, humbling the pride of the East, recon- 
ciling the Goths to the Church, bringing our own 
pagan ancestors within her pale, and completing her 
order and beautifying her ritual, while he strengthened 
the foundations of her power. And in such a time did 
the six Jesuit Fathers, Ignatius and his companions, 
while the world was exulting in the Church's fall, and 
'men made merry, and sent their gifts one to another,' 
because the prophets were dead who 'tormented them 
that dwelt upon earth,' make their vow in the small 
church of Montmartre ; and, attracting others to them 
by the sympathetic force of zeal, and the eloquence of 
sanctity, went forward calmly and silently into India 
in the East, and into America in the West, and while 
they added whole nations to the Church abroad, re- 
stored and reanimated the Catholic populations at 
home." 

Contrast, like comparison, is the juxta- 
position of objects, facts, or truths of the 
same class 5 but it differs from it in being 
the juxtaposition of opposites, or extremes. 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric . 217 

Vice and virtue, happiness and misery, the 
just and sinners, are examples of this form 
of illustration. "Everything," says Abp. 
Whately, "is rendered more striking by 
contrast ; and almost every kind of subject- 
matter affords materials for contrasted ex- 
pressions. Truth is opposed to error; wise 
conduct to foolish; different causes often 
produce opposite effects; different circum- 
stances dictate to prudence opposite con- 
duct; opposite impressions may be made 
by the same object on different minds ; and 
every extreme is opposed both to the mean 
and to the other extreme. 77 

The state of a soul devoid of faith and 
sanctifying grace may be described, to il- 
lustrate all that is involved in their posses- 
sion. The misery and disorder of a drunk- 
ard's home shows the blessings of tem- 
perance in a strong light. The civil 
punishment and social degradation follow- 
ing a career of crime will often open men's 
eyes to the beauty of the opposite virtue 
more effectually than a hundred texts from 
Sacred Scripture and the Fathers. Hence 
contrast is a favorite mode of illustration 
with preachers; it is a natural resource not 



218 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric, 

only of oratory but of every form of com- 
position; and its alternation of light and 
shade, if managed with taste and skill, may 
be made highly artistic. 

Examples. 1. The first Psalm, Beatus 
vir, gives a beautiful specimen of a well 
developed contrast. 

Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the coun- 
sel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor 
set in the chair of pestilence. But his will is in the 
law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day 
and night. And he shall be like a tree which is planted 
near the running waters, which shall bring forth its 
fruit in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and 
all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. Not so the 
wicked, not so : but like the dust, which the wind 
driveth from the face of the earth. Therefore the 
wicked shall not rise again in judgment : nor sinners 
in the council of the just. For the Lord knoweth the 
way of the just : and the way of the wicked shall perish. 

2. "The Holy Ghost who is the principle of the super- 
natural life in man, will not compromise or come to an 
understanding with the world and nature. His lessons 
to the Christian soul are directly contradictory to those 
of nature and the world. They say there is no higher 
order than that naturally known by his reason to man 
on earth; the Divine Spirit affirms that there is a 
higher order, and that the whole natural order must, if 
occasion requires, be sacrificed to the supernatural wel- 
fare of the soul. The world and nature are averse to, 
and violently repugn against, any kind of mortification 
of the senses or the will of man ; the Holy Ghost de- 
clares that the Christian's whole life on earth must be 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 219 

one of constant self-denial, submission, and sacrifice. 
The world and nature want pleasure, the pleasure of 
indolence, the pleasure of flattery, the pleasure of many 
friends, of state, of office, of the first places ; the Holy 
Ghost declares that the Christian's first duty is to carry 
his cross in his life, that life is a serious thing, that 
death is the time for rendering our account, that on 
this earth we have to suffer in order to enjoy in Heaven 
a recompense which shall be eternal. The world and 
nature do not wish to be controlled ; they wish to think 
for themselves and to speak for themselves, on all sub- 
jects, though the truth is, that those who are their 
votaries are the dragslaves of public opinion, and the 
blind followers of the blind. The Spirit of God says, 
that there is but one truth, that what men should wish 
is, not to be independent of direction, but to know the 
truth, honestly to seek nothing but the truth, the truth 
in natural science and social problems, and the truth 
in religious inquiry, in order to accept, embrace, and 
execute the mandates of truth." (Discourses from the 
Pulpit.) 

Example is the most effective form of il- 
lustration. It is a narrative of some occur- 
rence calculated to throw light on the truth 
we are expounding. It usually has a cul- 
minating point of interest, to stimulate at- 
tention ; and it should always present some 
striking feature of resemblance with what- 
ever it illustrates ; — in other words, it 
should be apposite. It should, moreover, 
be chosen with prudence. The character 
and prejudices of the audience ought to be 



220 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

taken into account; and anything that 
might arouse opposition or create disgust 
ought to be carefully avoided. 

Note. If we have reason to think that the people 
we are addressing hesitate to believe in extraordinary 
manifestations of the supernatural outside the Written 
Word, we should by all means seek a fitting oppor- 
tunity to warn them of the danger of such an attitude 
of mind. But, until we shall have done so, we should 
choose no examples that would be likely to excite in- 
credulity or repugnance. And yet we must not run 
into the opposite extreme, and avoid all mention of 
supernatural occurrences in the lives of the Saints and 
the history of the Church. Such omission would be 
likely to create scandal and might promote a spirit of 
rationalism. Besides, it would come either from a 
want of strong faith or a want of moral courage in the 
preacher. Either want would be deplorable. 

No example based on questionable au- 
thority should be used. Nothing but truth, 
even in the smallest details, should ever be 
heard from our pulpits. We have no ex- 
cuse for deviating from this rule. The 
Bible and authentic history, ecclesiastical 
and civil, together with the carefully 
written lives of great and holy men, supply 
us with abundant sources of examples with- 
out going to look for others in the shadow- 
land of popular tradition and legend. 
Neither are we allowed to exaggerate details 
for the purpose of effect. Facts seldom oc- 



Manual of Sacred Ehetoric. 221 

cur in real life with the artistic roundness 
and finish that fiction gives them. Some 
popular non-Catholic preachers seem not to 
be aware of this truth, and they give anec- 
dotes from personal experience, so telling 
and apposite, and so classical in their obser- 
vance of the unities, that to claim belief in 
them as actual occurrences is an insult to 
common sense, a profanity of truth, an 
outrage on the Grospel. Such preachers 
acquire a short-lived popularity; but they 
have no influence on Christian faith and 
conduct. 

Still, though so much abused, examples 
from everyday life will always hold an im- 
portant place in the sermons of every live 
preacher who knows human nature and the 
many-strand cords by which it is drawn to 
God. When he reads the newspaper and 
visits his people in their homes and hears 
local gossip — as he will often have to hear 
it — he will be on the alert to find illustra- 
tive matter for his sermons, and especially 
familiar examples calculated to make 
Christian faith and duty more intelligible 
and interesting. He will take notes of 
current incidents, as well as of striking 



222 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

thoughts or events that he will come across 
in his general reading (the recitation of his 
breviary included); he will peruse those 
notes from time to time ; and after a little 
his mind will be enriched with an accumu- 
lating fund of practical knowledge and ex- 
perience that will be of inestimable value 
to him in his preaching. 

An example has frequently to be indented 
to illustrate a general truth ; but when this 
is done, it should be made plain that it is 
not given as an actual occurrence. 

The value of examples, suitable, pointed, 
and well applied, in sermons cannot be 
overstated. "Example," says Burke, "is 
the school of mankind, and they will learn 
at no other." Our divine Lord taught in 
parables, which are simply forms of ex- 
ample; and it is hard to understand how 
those who carry on the work of the Grospel 
which He began, presume to improve on His 
method of instruction by excluding, as if 
by design, all examples from their ser- 
mons. By doing so, they certainly do not 
strengthen or enlarge the influence of the 
pulpit. "The place of parable in teach- 
ing," says Drummond, "and especially 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 223 

after the sanction of the greatest of 
Teachers, must always be recognized. The 
very necessities of language indeed demand 
this method of presenting truth. The tem- 
poral is the husk and framework of the 
eternal, and thoughts can be uttered only 
through things.' 7 Trench, in his work on 
Parables, goes farther and gives them "a 
measure of evidential as well as illustrative 
value.' 7 "The parable," he writes, "or 
other analogy to spiritual truth appropri- 
ated from the world of nature or man, is 
not merely illustrative, but also in some 
sort proof. It is not merely that these 
analogies assist to make the truth intel- 
ligible or, if intelligible before, present it 
more vividly to the mind, which is all that 
some will allow them. Their power lies 
deeper than this, in the harmony uncon- 
sciously felt by all men, and which all 
deeper minds have delighted to trace, 
between the natural and spiritual worlds, 
so that analogies from the first are felt to 
be something more than illustrations hap- 
pily but yet arbitrarily chosen. They are 
arguments, and may be alleged as wit- 
nesses ; the world of nature being through- 



224 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

out a witness for the world of spirit, pro- 
ceeding from the same hand, growing out 
of the same root, and being constituted for 
the same end." 

The application of an example to the 
truth illustrated should be made in a few 
clear, pithy words. Few things in a ser- 
mon are more tiresome than lengthy ex- 
planations of illustrative matter. Illustra- 
tions should be themselves explanatory; 
and the people may be credited with the 
intelligence necessary to see their applica- 
tion, at least with the aid of a brief com- 
ment by the preacher. 

Note. A preacher has to guard against the exces- 
sive use of examples, especially of anecdotes taken 
from the records of every day life. A profusion of 
these is apt to lead an audience to suspect that the ser- 
mon is intended for entertainment rather than for in- 
struction and persuasion. Yet anecdotes in the Catho- 
lic pulpit will never deserve the following severe 
criticism of Professor Mahaffy in his work on the 
"Decay of Modern Preaching" (p. 125): "To this feel- 
ing, the Excessive love of Variety, may be ascribed 
the vulgar habit of introducing anecdotes in the pulpit, 
— anecdotes, which are not only foolish and beside the 
point, but often practically untrue, inasmuch as the 
preacher always explains the facts, and the explanation 
may be palpably invented. Anecdotage in the pulpit 
gratifies only the most ignorant and vulgar of hearers, 
and from vulgar I mean to exclude all those, of how- 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 225 

ever low degree, who come to hear seriously for the 
sake of spiritual benefit." 

The following is a fair specimen of an 
anecdote well adapted for pulpit use ; but it 
would be more telling if authenticated by- 
details of time, place, and witnesses. 

"On the deck of a foundering vessel stood a negro 
slave. The last man left on board, he was about to step 
into the life-boat. She was laden to the gunwale, to 
the water's edge. Bearing in his arms what seemed a 
heavy bundle, the boat's crew who with difficulty kept 
her afloat in the roaring sea, refused to receive him. If 
he come it must be unencumbered and alone, on that 
they insisted. He must either leave that bundle and 
leap in, or throw it in and stay to perish. Pressing it 
to his bosom, he opened its folds ; and there, warmly 
wrapped, lay two little children, whom their father had 
committed to his care. He kissed them, and bade the 
sailors carry his affectionate farewell to his master, 
telling him how faithfully he had fulfilled his charge. 
Then lowering the children into the boat, which 
pushed off, the dark man stood alone on the deck, to 
go down with the sinking ship, a noble example of 
bravery, and true fidelity, and the 'love that seeketh 
not its own'." 

Quotation is generally used to prove or 
enforce truth ; but it is equally available for 
illustrating it. Water is clearest at its 
f ountainhead : truth is most luminous when 
it issues fresh from the lips of God. The 
Bible is G-od's word; what we preach is 
also His word: what more fitting, then, 



226 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

what more reasonable or effectual than to 
interpret and illustrate His message in His 
own words? However eloquent we may be, 
however extensive our reading and capaci- 
ous our memory, we shall never find in 
human knowledge or in the pathos and 
tragedy of human life, material for illustrat- 
ing our sermons equal in light and force to 
that which Sacred Scripture supplies. Many 
of St. Bernard's " Sermons' ' are mosaics 
formed out of Scripture texts, and all have 
the tone and flavor and coloring of the in- 
spired word; hence, of all the Fathers, 
Latin and Greek, he is the brightest, as 
well as the most beautiful and attractive; 
and his spoken words, as they have come 
down to us, seem to have lost nothing of 
the fervor and unction of their first de- 
livery. 

It is, I trust, unnecessary to dilate on the 
obvious advantages and importance of 
focusing, so to say, all the light we can 
gather from the words of Scripture on 
whatever truth we are propounding. Nor 
are we confined to the literal sense of a 
sacred text when we use it for illustration. 
For this purpose, we are authorized by the 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 227 

^xample of the inspired writers themselves 
to use what our commentators call the sen- 
sas accommo datitius . 

Short, pithy texts are better adapted for 
illustration than long passages; and in- 
cidents or occurrences are, perhaps, more 
telling than either. These, however, belong 
to another kind of illustration, namely, ex- 
ample or comparison. 

The Fathers and other spiritual writers 
are full of felicitous expressions exquisitely 
suited to throw light on any subject we 
have to develop. It is not of much practical 
use to recommend the reading of the former 
to an American priest, as the works are 
beyond his reach. But there are selections 
from them that can be easily procured; and 
above all there is the Breviary which we 
read every day and which contains many 
of the finest specimens of patristic thought. 
The continuity with which the Divine Office 
is to be recited does not prevent us from 
taking a note of any passage that strikes us 
while reading. "Quia singulis psalmis," 
writes D'Annibale in his trenchant style, 
i 'immo singulis psalmi versiculis inest pro- 
pria et ab aliis discreta significatio, quaevis 



228 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

interruptio caret letali : quin et levi, si vel 
longior non fuerit; vel ex causa honesta 
quamvis non gravi." (Summula, pars III. 
p. 141.) Such notes would grow impercep- 
tibly into a veritable thesaurus patrum, 
which would supply valuable aid in the pre- 
paration of a sermon. Of course, striking 
Scripture texts might be taken in a similar 
manner ; yet it is best to collect these from 
the vernacular version of the Bible. 

Quotations from profane writers seem to 
have the sanction of St. Paul, who in his 
address to the Athenians cited some of their 
own poets. When we have to preach to an 
audience constituted like that which he con- 
fronted, we are free to refer to any authority 
that our hearers respect; but when we 
speak to a Catholic audience, I think we 
can rarely quote a purely literary work 
without more or less impropriety, 

We sometimes hear preachers giving 
quotations in Latin before they give the En- 
glish version. The practice has no reason 
to support it and in my judgment ought to 
be discontinued. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
Historical Development. 

I have already said that formal proof is 
out of place in a sermon to a Catholic 
audience. Such proof would logically im- 
ply either doubt or incredulity in the 
hearers ; and in matters of faith or morals, 
whether explicitly defined or universally 
taught through the Church , neither doubt 
nor incredulity can be recognized or per- 
mitted. A Catholic's motive for his belief 
is the veracitas Dei revelantis; and to add 
other motives to this is somewhat analogous 
to proving to a man that fire burns or the 
sun shines or heat is not cold. What the 
people want is clear, full, satisfactory know- 
ledge regarding the infallible authority of 
the Church and the consequent credibility 
of her teaching. Bring this knowledge 
home to them as a first principle, and you 
will have no need to prove any doctrinal 
or moral truth you announce. Your com- 
(229) 



230 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

mission to teach the Gospel is sufficient 
guarantee to them of the certainty of your 
teaching. 

Yet human reason does not rest in faith 
as its normal condition. It aspires to know- 
ledge of the truth believed ; and although it 
awaits, in silence and in hope, for the man- 
ifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, still it 
searches earnestly for all the knowledge it 
can acquire regarding what it sees now 
through a glass in a dark manner. 

This natural and legitimate longing of 
the Christian soul can be fully satisfied only 
in eternity. The faithful know this and 
acquiesce in it ; and it helps them to deny 
ungodliness and worldly desires and to look 
with straining eyes for the blessed hope and 
coming of the great Grod and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ. But meanwhile, we can do 
much to help them. We can point out to 
them that "it is a great evidence of truth, 
in the case of revealed teaching, that it is so 
consistent, that it so hangs together, that 
one thing springs out of another, that each 
part requires and is required by the rest." 
(Newman.) 

But, what is more helpful still and more 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 231 

satisfying to the faithful, is this: In the 
leading dogmas of faith and the cardinal 
principles of Christian morals, we can take 
them back to the days when the Son of God 
dwelt among us, visible in the flesh; we 
can place them before Him, and they can 
listen to Him as He announced the mystery 
or truth that we His ministers and ambas- 
sadors are now announcing. We can point 
out the occasion and circumstances and the 
very words of the original revelation in the 
written record of it dictated by Glod Him- 
self. We can show them the same revela- 
tion taught in the early Church, impugned 
perhaps by heresy, but defended, ex- 
plained and developed, until after the 
heresy, like a lopped branch, had crumbled 
to dust, the truth shone out clearer and 
brighter than before. It is mentioned in 
symbols of the faith and in the writings of 
the Fathers; St. Cyprian preaches it in 
Carthage, St. Gregory in Neo-Caesarea, St. 
Ambrose in Milan, St. Augustine in Hippo, 
St. John Chrysostom in Constantinople; 
and so down the centuries, in the East and 
in the West, from the Elbe to the Nile, by 
the cultured Greek and the barbarous Goth, 



232 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

the truth we now teach has been "always 
taught and believed as part of that revela- 
tion which Christ entrusted to His Church, 
to enlighten them that sit in darkness and 
in the shadow of death. 

The perpetuity and universality of a re- 
vealed truth, historically unfolded, is, then, 
a material help to the faithful in satisfying, 
as far as can be done, their craving for 
fuller knowledge and comprehension. We 
should, therefore, after the definition and 
illustration of whatever truth we are en- 
gaged in teaching, give its development 
from its first written record — generally in 
Sacred Scripture — down, from century to 
century, till we reach our own day; when 
we should dilate on the world-wide com- 
munion of the Church — on the hundreds of 
millions of the human race, of all countries, 
of all ages, of all degrees and professions, 
united with us at this moment in one com- 
mon belief in the doctrine we announce. 
"It is," says Moehler, in his "Symbolism," 
"with the profoundest love, reverence, and 
devotion, the Catholic embraces the Church 
. . «, . . . The idea of community, in the first 
place, satisfies his feelings and his imagina- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 233 

tion, and in the second place, is equally 
agreeable to his reason; while, in the third 
place, the living appropriation of this idea 
by his will appears to him to concur with 
the highest religious and ethical duty of 

humanity No more beautiful object 

presents itself to the imagination of the 
Catholic — none more agreeably captivates 
his feelings, than the image of the harmoni- 
ous inter- workings of countless spirits, who, 
though scattered over the whole globe, en- 
dowed with freedom and possessing the 
power to strike off into every deviation to 
the right or to the left, yet, preserving still 
their various peculiarities, constitute one 
great brotherhood for the advancement of 
each other's spiritual existence — represent- 
ing one idea, that of the reconciliation of 
men with Grod, who on that account have 
been reconciled with one another, and are 
become one body. (Eph. iv., 11-16.)- • • . 
But who can deem it a matter of astonish- 
ment, that Catholics should be filled with 
joy and hope, and enraptured at the view of 
the beautiful construction of their Church, 
(and that they) should contemplate with 
delight that grand corporation which they 



234 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

form, since the philosophers of art declare, 
that the beautitul is only truth manifested 

and embodied Yet it is not merely the 

imagination and the feelings of the Catholic 
which are contented by this idea of the 
Church, but his reason also is thereby satis- 
fied " 

This historical development of doctrine 
will not only satisfy the earnest believer, 
but it will also enable him to defend his 
faith with intelligence and to vindicate the 
teaching of the Church against current mis- 
representations and calumnies. ' ' Argument- 
ation," as I have stated already, has no 
place in the Sunday sermon ; but historical 
development gives all the information that 
could be conveyed under the form of the 
most convincing proof, while it implies no 
wavering or unbelief on the part of the 
hearer, creates no critical temper in him, — 
on the contrary, enamors him of his faith, 
makes it his pride, his glory, his invaluable 
treasure. 

The moral life of the Church belongs to 
her history, at least as much as her political 
relations with civil society; yet compara- 
tively little is known in detail about the 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 235 

practice of the Christian virtues in indi- 
vidual and family life, about the reception 
of the Sacraments ? and about the observance 
of ecclesiastical discipline, in the past ages 
of the Church. In moral sermons, there- 
fore, the history of a virtue or vice must be 
for the most part confined to the evidences 
of its revelation in Sacred Scripture. We 
have, of course, edifying examples of the 
heroic practice of all the virtues in the lives 
of the saints; but those examples belong 
more appropriately to illustration. 

The history of a doctrinal truth should be 
given with clearness, simplicity, accuracy 
and concreteness. Digressions, metaphysi- 
cal niceties, vague or ambiguous phraseo- 
logy, and all unnecessary abstract reasoning 
are out of place here. As history is mainly 
occupied with facts, the history of doctrine 
ought to consist of these rather than of tex- 
tual exegesis, although this too is neces- 
sary and should be given briefly in the form 
of a carefully prepared paraphrase. The 
style most suitable is the conversational — 
as far removed as possible from intemperate 
invective and self-confident dogmatism. 
The tone and delivery should be earnest, 
animated, and persuasive. 



236 Manual of Sacred Bnetoric. 

The Scriptural source of a doctrine ought 
to be the first given. For this any treatise 
on dogmatic theology will supply abundant 
texts. It is not the number of those texts 
that tells with an audience, as much as the 
obviousness of their application to the truth 
we are expounding. Let us seek out, then, 
one or two of the most applicable, and either 
omit the others or introduce them in- 
formally in our paraphrase of those we 
select. When there are two texts equally 
relevant, one from the Grospels and the 
other from the Epistles, it is best to quote 
both, as we thus consult for the movement 
of the history we are giving. 

Texts that we intend to use in preaching 
should never be taken on trust from the 
books in which they are quoted. They 
should be read in the Bible itself and studied 
in connexion with their contexts. This will 
give us a confidence in explaining them that 
we should not otherwise feel ; but especially 
it will save us from all danger of mis- 
quotation. 

I stated in the last chapter that for the 
purpose of illustration the words of a text 
may be extended beyond their primary in- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 237 

elusion and adapted to objects, facts or 
truths which the sacred writer had not be- 
fore his mind . Such adaptation is altogether 
out of place in this department of exposition. 
"Nunquam licet sensum," writes Cornely, 
u quern per accommodationem verbis Scripturae 
ingerimus, pro vera et genuina Spiritus Sancti 
sententia aliis obtrudere; quare in dogmatiim 
demonstrations aut confirmatione accommo- 
dationi non est locus" What we are to look 
for, then, in the Scripture text or passage 
we adduce is its literal, or historical, sense 
— the sense intended to be conveyed directly 
by the words. To find this sense, we should 
study the words of the text according to the 
laws of hermeneutics. However, as few 
priests have time for such original study, it 
is, generally speaking, sufficient to read 
carefully the interpretation of the text given 
in some approved commentary. We, next, 
read the context and find out its relation to 
the passage we intend to quote. We note 
also the circumstances of the revelation — 
the speaker, the audience, the time, the 
place, etc. When we have thus mastered 
the text in its meaning, scope, relations, 
and most important circumstances, it yet 



238 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

remains to paraphrase it in as clear, popular, 
and pointed a form as possible. The exact 
meaning of the words must be given with 
precision ; their application to the truth we 
are expounding, must be made obvious; and 
the diction and phraseology must' be so 
simple, that it will be impossible to mis- 
understand them. 

Examples. 1. "... Hence it is that St. Paul, as 
feeling the majesty of that new nature which is imparted 
to us, addresses himself in a form of indignation to 
those who forget it. 'What !' he says, 'what! know ye 
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?' 
As if he said, 'Can you be so mean-spirited and base- 
minded as to dishonor yourselves in the devil's ser- 
vice? Should we not pity the man of birth, or station, 
or character, who degraded himself in the eyes of the 
world, who forfeited his honor, broke his word, or 
played the coward? And shall not we, from mere sense 
of propriety, be ashamed to defile our spiritual purity, 
the royal blood of the second Adam, with deeds of dark- 
ness? Let us leave it to the hosts of evil spirits, to the 
haters of Christ, to eat the dust of the earth all the days 
of their life. Cursed are they above all cattle, and 
above every beast of the field ; grovelling shall they go, 
till they come to their end and perish. But for Christ- 
ians, it is theirs to walk in the light, and to lift up 
their hearts, as looking out for Him who went away, 
that He might return to them again." 

2. "St. Paul says, 'our conversation is in heaven,' 
or in other words, heaven is our city. We know what 
it is to be a citizen of this world ; it is to have interests, 
rights, privileges, duties, connexions, in some particu- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 239 

lar town or state ; to depend upon it, and to be bound to 
defend it ♦ to be part of it. Now all this the Christian 
is in repect to heaven. Heaven is his city, earth is 
not .... 'Here,' as the same Apostle says in another 
place, 'we have no continuing city, but we seek one to 
come.' And therefore he adds to the former of these 
texts, 'from whence also we look for the Saviour, the 
Lord Jesus Christ.' This is the very definition of a 
Christian, — one who looks for Christ ; not who looks 
for gain, or distinction, or power, or pleasure, or com- 
fort, but who looks 'for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus 
Christ.' This, according to the Scripture, is the es- 
sential mark, this is the foundation of a Christian, 
from which everything else follows ; whether he is rich 
or poor, high or low, is a further matter, which may be 
considered apart ; but he surely is a primitive Christian, 
and he only, who has no aim of this world, who has no 
wish to be other in this world than he is ; whose 
thoughts and aims have relation to the unseen, the 
future world; who has lost his taste for this world, 
sweet and bitter being the same to him ; who fulfills 
the same Apostle's exhortation in another Epistle, 
'Set your affection on things above, not on things on 
the earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.' " 
3. "St. Peter — who was afterwards the Pope of Rome 
— began life as a fisherman, on the shores of the Sea 
of Galilee. He had his boats, he had his nets ; he 
swept those waters, pursuing his humble trade in com- 
pany with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and 
with Andrew, his own elder brother. These men had 
passed the night upon the bosom of the waters, toiling 
and laboring, but they had taken nothing. Sad and 
dispirited for so much time and labor lost, they landed 



240 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

from their boats in the morning ; and they took out 
their nets to wash them. Whilst they were thus en- 
gaged, a great multitude appeared in sight — men who 
followed the Lord Jesus Christ, and pressed around 
Him, that they might hear the words of divine truth 
from His lips. He came to the shores of the lake, and 
He entered into one of the boats ; and the Evangelist 
takes good care to tell us that the boat into which the 
Saviour stepped was Simon Peter's boat .... After 
He had enlightened their (the people's) minds with 
the treasures of the divine wisdom which flowed from 
Him, He turned to Peter and said to him : 'Launch out 
into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.' 
Peter answering said : 'Master, we have labored all 
night and we have taken nothing ; but at Thy word I 
will let down the net.' No sooner does he cast that 
net into the sea, under the eyes, and at the command 
of Jesus Christ, than it is instantly filled with fishes, 
and Peter's boat is filled until it is almost sinking. 
This is the fact recorded. What does it mean ?" 

The first two of these examples are given to show 
how texts, to be adequately paraphrased so that their 
application may be thoroughly realized, will sometimes 
need ample extension and even illustration. The last 
example gives the local setting of a truth whose history 
is to be traced. 

The history of the source and develop- 
ment of a revealed truth must, however, 
have much more onward movement in it 
than is found in any of the above extracts. 
It must, indeed, be rather a spirited histori- 
cal sketch, than a detailed history, of the 
doctrine ; otherwise it would grow out of all 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 211 

proportion with the rest of the sermon. It 
is necessary, therefore, that the paraphrase 
should be brief and, at the same time, clear 
and pointed. It is also necessary that leading 
facts alone should be given ; yet those facts 
must be made instinct with life and energy, 
for they have a double purpose to serve : to 
give light to the believer ; and to flash con- 
viction on the unbeliever, — this, however, 
indirectly and by implication. 

After the Scripture sources of a doctrine 
have been given, we next show its working 
and development in the life of the Church. 
To do this, we make liberal use of eccles- 
iastical history, including the writings of 
the Fathers, the rise and fall of heresies, 
the enactments of councils, the authorized 
symbols of faith, and the universal practice 
of the faithful, as far as it implies or em- 
bodies the doctrine we are explaining. This 
reference to Church history for the eluci- 
dation of doctrine, so far from being a novel 
idea, dates back to early Christian times. 
It is based on the continuity and apostolicity 
of faith; and it is singularly adapted to 
popular discourse, because it is made up 
chiefly of concrete historical facts. 



242 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

Passages from the Fathers are quoted 
appropriately and usefully, when the audi- 
ence has been instructed thoroughly in the 
authority due to them and the conditions 
necessary for placing that authority beyond 
dispute. But the mention of "the Fathers' 7 , 
as a rule, conveys only a very vague and in- 
definite idea to the Catholic layman. It is 
true, this should not be so; but, perhaps, 
his ignorance is not altogether his fault ; — 
in any case, until it is entirely removed, we 
should never adduce the testimony of a 
Father without stating who he was, when 
he lived, and what is the form of the work 
from which the testimony is taken — pole- 
mical, apologetic, dogmatic, catechetical, 
homiletic, exegetic, etc. 

The official action of the Church as- 
sembled in council during the first five 
centuries supplies stronger and more im- 
pressive, as well as more satisfactory, evi- 
dence of the antiquity of a doctrine than 
the writings of any individual Father. 

A large body of venerable, saintly bishops, 
successors of the Apostles, are come together 
from every country and province of the 
known world, to bear witness to the tra- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 243 

ditional teaching of their respective churches. 
The Roman Pontiff:, as vicar of Christ and 
head of the universal Church, presides by 
his delegates. Some error against the an- 
cient faith has been broached, and its author 
is there at the invitation of the council to 
defend it. The Holy GKhost is invoked in 
solemn prayer. The heresiarch is heard, if 
he choose to speak ; and then the votes of 
the bishops are taken, the error is condemned 
as heretical, and the Catholic doctrine 
affected by it is formulated in more explicit 
and definite terms than before. The voices 
of men who were, for the most part, utter 
strangers to one another, who had come 
from different, and many from the most 
distant, countries, — of men, too, distin- 
guished for their learning and holiness — 
the voices of such men concurring without 
possible collusion in a profession of one and 
the same faith must bring conviction of its 
divine origin to all except the wilfully blind 
and perverse. "What is more to our purpose : 
that concurrence, brought prominently be- 
fore our people, will give a fuller life — a 
more stirring energy — to their faith. It 
will make them realize, as they may have 



244 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

never done before, the magnificent, world- 
wide communion, nineteen centuries old, to 
which they belong, the anxious care with 
which, during all those centuries, the deposit 
of divine revelation was guarded, and the 
sincerity, the earnestness, the learning, the 
self-sacrifice, and frequently the martyrdom, 
with which the ecclesia docens guarded it. 

It may, perhaps, be objected here that the 
early councils were but few and those occu- 
pied with one doctrine alone — the Incar- 
nation. It is true, that down to the end of 
the fifth century only four general councils 
had been held ; but we are entitled to refer 
to national and provincial synods, as well 
as to those that are ecumenical, because the 
former, like the latter, bear legitimate wit- 
ness to the faith then held, and, besides, 
they had the tacit approbation of the uni- 
versal Church. Down to the middle of the 
third century, comparatively few of those 
particular councils were held on account of 
the violent persecutions to which Christians 
were subjected. But afterwards, they were 
celebrated at brief intervals in one or other 
part of the Church. Numerous doctrinal 
and moral errors were condemned in those 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 245 

councils, that have again cropped up in our 
day ; and surely a preacher, explaining the 
revealed truths opposed to them, will see 
and use the decided advantage that history 
thus gives him of pointing out the con- 
sistency and antiquity of the Church's 
teaching and the unflinching firmness of her 
attitude against error. Semper eadem. 




CHAPTER XV. 
Application. 

. Exposition, which we have been treating 
in the last four chapters, has for its direct 
and immediate object the enlightenment of 
the hearer's understanding. But the word 
of God is infinitely more than intellectual 
enlightenment ; it is a seed, full of life and 
power, and capable of producing fruit a 
hundredfold when planted in the soul under 
favorable circumstances. The first of these 
circumstances is exposition ; the second ap- 
plication, or the presentation of the truth 
expounded to the individual conscience. 

"Does this truth affect me personally? 
Does it make any demand on me beyond 
my acceptance of it as a revelation? Can I 
consistently hold it and continue my present 
mode of life? If not, what am I bound to 
do? what obstacles are in the way? what 
means have I within my reach that will en- 
able me to carry out the obligations it may 
(246) 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 247 

impose on me?" — These questions will 
arise confusedly during the exposition in 
every earnest conscience, disturbing its 
peace until they find a satisfactory solution. 
To give this is the object of Application. 

There are, indeed, some speculative 
truths of revelation the exposition of which 
usually touch the conscience lightly or not 
at all. Does this arise through the fault 
of the preacher, or from the nature of the 
theme, or because the hearer is not properly 
disposed! Generally, I think, the preacher 
is to blame. The object he places before 
him in preparing his sermon is not some 
definite spiritual good of his hearer; he 
sows dead formulas where he should plant 
living seed; his words may be luminous, 
but they are devoid of heat, of suggestive- 
ness, of inspiration. They are not the 
words of those men by whom salvation was 
brought to Israel. Yet it is not harder to 
pursue and attain a definite object in a 
doctrinal than in a moral sermon. Earnest- 
ness, a spiritual conception of our subject, 
and a determination to impress a similar 
conception on our hearers, — these are re- 
quirements of every preacher, and they put 



248 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

the hearer in such a spiritual frame of mind 
that a moral application seems to grow as 
naturally out of a doctrinal theme as fruit 
grows on a tree. 

Example. In a purely doctrinal dis- 
course on the Fitness of the Glories of 
Mary, Cardinal Newman makes the follow- 
ing application: 

"And now, my dear brethren, what is 
befitting in us, if all that I have been telling 
you is befitting in Mary? If the Mother of 
Emmanuel ought to be the first of creatures 
in sanctity and in beauty ; if it became her 
to be free from all sin from the very first, 
and from the moment she received her first 
grace to begin to merit more ; and if such 
as was her beginning, such was her end, 
her conception immaculate and her death 
an assumption; if she died, but revived, 
and is exalted on high; what is befitting in 
the children of such a Mother, but an imita- 
tion, in their measure, of her devotion, her 
meekness, her simplicity, her modesty, and 
her sweetness? Her glories are not only 
for the sake of her Son, they are for our 

sakes also Above all, let us imitate 

her purity, who, rather than relinquish her 



Manual of Sacred Ehetoric. 249 

virginity, was willing to lose Him for a 
Son." * 

NoTR. Many preachers make no moral application 
toward the end of a doctrinal sermon. Their whole 
aim seems to be concentrated in producing a deep 
spiritual impression of the doctrine. This is their de- 
finite object, in which the moral inference is held in 
solution, to be drawn with the help of divine grace by 
the hearer himself. There may be some earnest, 
thoughtful members in every congregation who will do 
this ; nay more, some entire congregations may in rare 
cases be trusted to do it ; but, as a rule, the preacher 
should himself make the application. It is particularly 
necessary that he should do so when he speaks to 
children and young people generally, because they are 
not likely to work out, perhaps not even capable of 
working out, practical conclusions by themselves. 

The Application usually reveals the de- 
finite object of the sermon, telling (1) what 
is to be done, and (2) how to do it. 

1. What is to be done f At this point of 
his sermon the preacher must be above all 
things practical. He must look with keen 
vision into the consciences of his hearers, 
and examine their secret workings ; he must 
discover the obstacles that, consciously or 
unconsciously, block the line of conduct he 
points out ; and he must not move a single 
step forward until these are effectually re- 
moved. Sometimes, in moral sermons, the 



250 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric . 

removal of those obstacles by earnest per- 
suasive reasoning ought to be made one of 
the main divisions, because as long as the 
will is held in check by some secret motive 
or passion, the most thrilling, soul-stirring 
eloquence will have no influence over it. 
A bar of iron between the wheels stops a 
machine, no matter what force of steam 
you apply ; a bad habit, a pet theory, or an 
ingrained prejudice clogs the will somewhat 
in a similar way. 

2. How to carry out the resolution? The 
practical manner of carrying out the reso- 
lution which forms the definite object of the 
sermon is next explained. Here two ex- 
tremes are to be avoided — vagueness and 
minuteness ; yet it is safer to verge toward 
the latter than the former. A vague ex- 
planation is like a pointless arrow ; it strikes 
but does not penetrate. On the other hand, 
if a resolution be too minutely developed, it 
will produce the effect of an anti-climax, 
suggesting the fable of the Mountain in 
labor. A distinct office of any virtue may 
be made the object of a resolution, and the 
ordinary mode of executing that office ought 
to be fully described-, but singular and 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 251 

perplexing contingencies, in which the ob- 
ligation of the virtue may be questionable, 
should not be discussed. What are called 
"cases of conscience" are altogether out of 
place in the pulpit. 

It is unwise to urge more than one reso- 
lution in a sermon. The exposition may, 
indeed, lead up to several practical con- 
clusions ; but if all of them be proposed, the 
attention of the audience is divided and the 
more they are, the less intense is the con- 
sideration given to each. This is obviously 
true when the resolutions arise from dis- 
similar virtues or obligations-, but it is 
equally true, when the practices enjoined 
belong all to one general principle of con- 
duct. All the observances enjoined by 
fraternal charity, for instance, should not 
be urged in one sermon. They should, of 
course, be enumerated and, it may be, ex- 
plained, but only one can be effectually en- 
forced. 

Every obligation has a positive side — 
something to be done, and a negative side 
— something to be omitted. Each of these 
sides must be carefully explained, as it is 
the complement of the other. Whether 



252 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

both may be embodied in one resolution, 
depends on the nature of the duty. Hearing 
Mass on Sundays and abstaining from 
servile works ought to be enforced in 
distinct sermons; while the prohibition of 
theft and the positive obligation of resti- 
tution may be combined in one. 

Young preachers in their excessive zeal 
sometimes propose the higher grades of 
the virtues for general practice. They think 
that what St. Thomas calls the political, or 
civil, virtues are beneath the standard of 
ordinary Christian life; hence they endeavor 
to raise the aspirations of their audience to 
the higher level of the "purgatorious 
virtues' ' (virtutes purgatoriae) or even to 
the still more elevated plane where the 
"virtues of the mind purified" are practised. 
These higher stages of the spiritual life are 
reached by very few in a congregation. It 
is, therefore, useless and perhaps imprudent 
(in sermons) to urge people to a course 
which they are not inclined to follow, which 
they are not bound to follow, and which, 
bound or not, they are sure not to follow. 
It is much more practical to propose- and 
urge the ordinary exercise of the theological 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 253 

and cardinal virtues — I mean such exercise 
of them as may be reasonably expected 
from one who takes a serious interest in 
what pertains to his salvation, but who, 
notwithstanding, is not easily moved from 
settled personal and social habits. The 
virtues practised in this way are called by 
St. Thomas political, or civil, not to dis- 
tinguish them from Christian virtues, but to 
denote that they are required in every good 
citizen (poUUctis, or civis). Indeed, com- 
mentators of St. Thomas require for the 
exercise of the "political virtues" a degree 
of perfection which the bulk of our people 
rarely attain. 

Every one knows that a moral resolution 
cannot be practised in a meritorious manner 
without grace, and that grace can be ob- 
tained regularly only by certain religious 
acts, chiefly prayer and the Sacraments of 
Penance and the Eucharist. Hence these 
means must be made as familiar to our 
people as the clothes they wear or the food 
they eat. The nature and use and power 
of prayer must, indeed, be so brought home 
to them, that it will be a first principle of 
life and conduct, a practical guiding axiom, 



254 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

a habit, an instinct, a reality as unquestion- 
able as the air they breathe or the ground 
they walk on. When a priest has once 
achieved this result, he need have little anx- 
iety about the efficiency of his exhortation. 
The habit of prayer makes the springs of 
emotion and action so sensitive in the soul, 
that they respond to the simplest words of 
admonition. No matter how deeply an 
audience be impressed by a sermon, the im- 
pression will soon wear off unless it be 
guarded by prayer. When Massillon 
preached at St. Eustache that famous sermon 
of his on the Fewness of the Elect, and 
made the entire audience spring to their 
feet, "as if looking for the archangel to 
sound his trumpet, " the terror created was 
no doubt salutary, but was it operative? 
did it lead to conversion of heart? In- 
fidelity, whether masked or barefaced, does 
not pray; so Massillon's eloquence did not 
stay the progress of French corruption or 
delay the advent of the French Revolution. 
Prayer for grace to keep a resolution can 
scarcely be sincere or even serious, if he 
who asks for help does nothing to help him- 
self. "Qui nos creavit, J ' says St. Augustine, 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 255 

"sine nobis, non nos justificat sine nobis; 
creavit nescientem, justificat volentem." 
(De Verb. Apost. serm. 15, C. ii.) This 
elementary truth, familiar as it is to us all, 
is not studied as it ought to be in its far- 
reaching applications. There are especially 
two deductions from it which are intimately 
connected with the practical result of a 
sermon. These are: first, the necessity of 
avoiding or putting away from us every- 
thing that would lead us to break our reso- 
lution ; and, secondly, the necessity of culti- 
vating, developing and strengthening the 
will in its natural operations, so that its co- 
operation with grace may be more assured 
and uniform. The first of4hese obligations 
has to be explained frequently to the people, 
as a necessary means of keeping the reso- 
lution we propose, particularly when that 
resolution has for its object the avoidance of 
certain vicious practices. The second may 
appear strange and perhaps irrelevant to 
many; but I am convinced that, if it were 
explained and enforced more generally than 
it is, there would be less backsliding from 
good intentions and resolutions. A few 
words about each will be of service to the 
young preacher. 



256 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

a) The obligation of avoiding the oc- 
casions of sin. This obligation mnst be ex- 
plained and urged when we speak of vicious 
practices, that is, of sinful actions to which 
we are inclined by nature or habit or sur- 
roundings. The prohibition of anything 
unlawful always includes the prohibition 
of whatever would naturally and usually 
lead to it. The Sixth Commandment, for 
instance, forbids not only adultery and 
fornication, but all thoughts and words as 
well as actions that would vehemently incite 
the will to them. 

Occasions of sin are external objects or 
circumstances calculated to draw the soul 
into temptation. If the temptation arising 
from the object or circumstance be yielded 
to generally (or, according to some, even 
frequently), the occasion is called proxi- 
mate; otherwise, it is called remote. The 
proximate occasion is voluntary, if it can be 
easily avoided; necessary, if it cannot be 
avoided without serious inconvenience. 
The former must be always put away un- 
der pain of sin; the latter not so, because 
the person exposed to such occasion may 
make it remote by prayer and the Sacra- 



Manual of Sacred Mhetoric. 257 

merits, cooperating with prudent vigilance 
and a resolute will. 

Hence, preachers are not justified in 
telling their people that every proximate 
occasion of sin is to be avoided or put away : 
first, because such a statement, without dis- 
tinction or qualification, is not true; and 
secondly, because it is calculated to form a 
false conscience and lead to formal sin. 
Yet, there is much danger of self-deception 
when we come to determine whether or not 
any particular inconvenience makes an oc- 
casion of sin necessary. He who is exposed 
to it cannot decide the question for himself, 
and it cannot be decided for him in the 
pulpit; hence, the only course to recom- 
mend is to consult his pastor or confessor 
and abide by his judgment. 
I Sins of appetite form an important part 
of the subject-matter of preaching. Now, 
we know from experience that we are most 
violently tempted to those sins when some 
external object suggests the animal pleasure 
of committing them. We are obliged, there- 
fore, when the danger of yielding is im- 
minent and voluntary, to shun such object 
or put it away from us ; and, indeed, when 



258 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

we can do so without serious inconvenience, 
no spiritual remedies will avail us as long as 
we remain in contact with it. I am pro- 
foundly convinced, then, that no resolution 
against carnal vices will be of any permanent 
use, unless it be backed up with another re- 
solution against the proximate occasions of 
breaking it. These details are intimately 
connected with the attainment of the de- 
finite object of a sermon; and a zealous 
priest will not neglect them on account of 
the little oratorical display possible in giving 
them. 

b) The necessity of cultivating natural 
will-power. The Catholic doctrine of grace 
in relation to the human will is not always 
properly understood by the faithful; and 
the misunderstanding of it sometimes pre- 
vents good resolutions from being kept, 
particularly under stress of violent temp- 
tation. There are people who expect grace 
to do every thing for them, even to supply 
the essential will-element of a supernatural 
human act. Hence, when strongly tempted, 
say to break a resolution they have made, 
they make little effort to resist — to exercise 
their free will in combination with the di- 



Manual of Sacred BJietoric. 259 

vine help they expect — but they throw all 
the burden and responsibility of overcoming 
the temptation on God. The same error 
manifests itself in another way. Strength- 
ening grace is not always needed for good 
works toward which from habit or tempera- 
ment we feel a natural or acquired inclin- 
ation. Yet those people have the habit of 
relying on supernatural help to perform the 
simplest, easiest moral actions as well as to 
overcome every slight temptation that may 
occur to them. In truth, they seem to hold 
that the human will without divine help is 
capable of nothing but sin. They make the 
work of grace, contrary to Catholic teach- 
ing, an operation, not a cooperation with a 
living, acting agent (the will) ; and the con- 
sequence is, that when they find grace not 
to do for them what they erroneously ex- 
pect of it, their faith in prayer and the 
Sacraments is weakened and they are often 
grievously tempted to give up religious ob- 
servances altogether. 

Whilst we teach, then, # the necessity of 
illuminating and inspiring grace for every 
salutary and supernatural act we do, we 
should at the same time teach the necessity 



260 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

of exercising the will as an essential con- 
dition of the action of concomitant grace. 

But there is another prevalent error re- 
garding the will to which I would call at- 
tention here. Not only within, but outside, 
the sphere of supernatural actions, man has 
the power to choose between opposite or 
diverse courses. Some choose from the im- 
pulse of the moment ; some, from feeling or 
passion, against their better judgment. 
They think there is no harm in doing so, as 
there is no question of sin ; but they do not 
consider that they lessen their available 
will-power to cooperate with grace in resist- 
ing temptation, by the habit they indulge 
of acting against, or without, the guidance 
of reason. And yet, when tempted, they 
expect divine help to supply the weakness 
of will caused by that habit and persevered 
in without any thought of correction. 

Another form of this error is habitual ex- 
cess in the venial indulgence of the appe- 
tites. Experience shows that mortal sin is 
the ordinary result of such excess, not, I 
am convinced, from the want of grace, but 
from the false presumption that grace will 
do for us what we are unwilling to do for 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 261 

ourselves — give us back in the hour of 
need the will-power which we deliberately 
throw away. 

A zealous preacher will realize the impor- 
tance of guarding his audience against these 
two obstacles to the efficient enforcement of 
the definite object of his sermon. He will 
use all possible energy in cautioning them 
against voluntary proximate occasions of 
sin, and in teaching them that it is only the 
will in action, that is, struggling with all its 
might against temptation, which is effi- 
caciously helped by grace to victory. 




CHAPTER XVI. 

Persuasion. 

There is a fundamental truth contained 
in the saying: "That only which we love, 
we know." Knowledge, then, of a divine 
truth is not perfect unless we love it and 
seek to incorporate it in our lives. Hence, 
Exposition in its broadest sense includes not 
only the fullest intellectual knowledge of 
what we preach about, but also the motives 
for making that knowledge practical and 
operative. Persuasion is the art of choosing 
those motives wisely and using them ef- 
fectively. It is easy to move the will on- 
wards or downwards in the direction of its 
natural inclinations. But to move it up- 
wards to the supernatural is beyond all 
human faculty or art, — this can be done 
by grace alone. However, as our divine 
Lord has ordained that by preaching the 
world is to be brought into the Church, we 
(262) 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 263 

must believe that He intended by the 
ministry of preaching to convey those actual 
graces to men which would lead to their 
sanctification and salvation. He did not 
make it a channel of habitual or sanctifying 
grace, and hence it is not a Sacrament ; but 
it is a Sacramental, in as much as it ef- 
fectively symbolizes the actual supernatural 
helps which are conferred through it on the 
well-disposed. 

Now, it is a well-known principle in theo- 
logy that if the symbolic action instituted 
by Christ to give grace be not performed — 
if any substantial part of it be omitted — 
the grace is not given. We may reasonably 
infer, then, that there is at least great 
danger of our sermons bearing no spiritual 
fruit, if they be wanting in the essential ele- 
ment of persuasion. They seem to be no 
more the divinely appointed channels of 
actual graces to our hearers, than wine used 
in Baptism would be the divinely appointed 
channel of spiritual regeneration. 

The object of Persuasion (in preaching) 
is the absolute determination of the will to 
do something conducive to salvation. To 
excite a merely sentimental yearning to pos- 



264 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

sess some virtue or get rid of some vice is 
not enough ; because such yearning implies 
conscious or unconscious tampering with 
grace — unwillingness to do what God re- 
quires of us. Most of the barrenness of 
preaching comes from our not keeping 
definitely and prominently before us this 
object of Persuasion. We are satisfied if 
we expound divine truth in simple popular 
language, and we are elated if we succeed 
in moving our audience to tears ; yet neither 
exposition nor tear-shedding is the end of a 
sermon. 

Persuasion requires certain qualities in a 
preacher, without which his most impas- 
sioned words will not produce their full 
effect on an audience. First of all, he must 
have a character for trustworthiness as a 
spiritual guide to his people. He must, 
therefore, be sincere and earnest, and his 
life must be consistent with his teaching. 
It may be thought that no priest having the 
care of souls could be found deficient in 
trustworthiness. It is true, indeed, that as 
far as regards the celebration of Mass and 
the administration of the Sacraments every 
priest in good standing is trusted. It is 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 265 

true also that no one denies such a one the 
negative goodness of respectability and 
moral cleanliness of life. But something 
more than this is required when he would 
persuade his people from the pulpit to a 
true conversion of heart, — a conversion 
implying the sacrifice of many cherished in- 
clinations. There must be positive good- 
ness — faith, earnestness, zeal, piety, 
charity to the poor — in a word, he must 
live up to what he teaches. Men of the 
world apply their business principles to the 
affair of their salvation. If some one ad- 
vise them to invest their money in a certain 
concern, they naturally inquire how much 
he himself has invested in it; and if they 
find that he has all his money invested else- 
where, they feel a reasonable distrust in his 
sincerity, and his advice goes for nought. 

NOTE. Professor Mahaffy in his Essay on the Decay 
of Modern Preaching holds that a preacher, merely as 
such, and considered just as he is in his pulpit, need 
not be a good man. "It is not necessary," he writes, 
"that he should possess personal piety, or presuppose 
it in himself. He may give great expositions of dogma ; 
he may give splendid exhortations to a holy life ; and, 
provided he be really in earnest, — provided his en- 
thusiasm be not fictitious, or his earnestness assumed, 
— he may be a great champion of his faith. For he 



266 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

may feel all the value of goodness, lie may sincerely 
believe in the truth and value of his creed, ard yet he 
may not have attained that inner calm of the soul, that 
closer walk with God, which is the privilege of the 
very few among men." 

It may be readily granted that any 
preacher endowed with dramatic talent can 
give eloquent expression to truths and senti- 
ments which have no influence on his own 
life. But his eloquence will have no prac- 
tical effect on his hearers unless they either 
presume or know him to be a good man in 
whose private life the truths he teaches are 
embodied. Hence a resident pastor, no 
matter how eloquent, is sadly deceived if he 
expects his people to abstract from his 
private character when he stands in his pul- 
pit and announces the law to them. 

There can be no persuasion without 
unction. This is defined to be, "that fervor 
and tenderness of address which excites 
piety and devotion. " It is a quality com- 
municated to preaching by the whole-souled 
earnestness and zeal of the preacher. It 
cannot be counterfeited, nor can it be 
acquired by art ; indeed, it can scarcely be 
analyzed, for, although it is conveyed 
through language and deliverv, yet these 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 267 

cannot produce it, as, even at tlnir best, 
they often leave the heart cold and un- 
moved. Perhaps it is best described in its 
effect by the two disciples going to Emmaus, 
who, after our divine Lord had expounded 
to them in all the Scriptures the things that 
were concerning Him and had vanished out 
of their sight, said one to the other: "Was 
not our heart burning within us, whilst He 
spoke in the way and opened to us the 
Scriptures V 

It is unction chiefly that makes the ex- 
position of doctrine and moral duty interest- 
ing and palatable to an audience. Earnest- 
ness begets earnestness; words springing 
from a heart on fire burn their way even to 
hearts of ice. Cor ad cor loquitur. 

There is but one way for a preacher to 
acquire unction, and that is to be honest 
with himself and his people, to mean every 
word he says to them, to prescribe no rule 
for them with which he does not regulate 
his own conduct. 

Note. Few things in preaching are so contemptible 
as simulated unction. I am inclined to think that it 
has contributed more than any other cause to estrange 
men from religion. Only women and children are af- 
fected by it. Manliness never speaks in whining tones, 



268 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

nor does it "assume a sickly smile while expressing an 
artificial love of God or of our erring brethren." 

Another condition of Persuasion is, that 
we win and hold the goodwill of our audi- 
ence. We must, indeed, announce to them 
frequently mysterious or unpalatable truths 
without mincing or minimizing; but in do- 
ing so we must be careful not to arouse the 
antagonism of prejudice or ignorance. On 
the contrary, we must use tact and delicacy 
and gentleness in leading up to the truths 
by copious comparisons and illustrations, 
and by showing their reasonableness as well 
as the necessity and advantages of accepting 
them. 

This condition requires us also to please 
the eye and the ear of our audience. The 
personal appearance of a preacher has an 
important bearing on the success of his 
efforts to persuade. So, too, a harsh voice, 
a false pitch, defective modulation, ungrace- 
ful gestures — everything, in a word, con- 
trary to taste and propriety will tell against 
him and lessen the effect of his pleading. 

To move the will from a state of apathy 
or antagonism to a state of activity in a par- 
ticular direction, certain influences must be 






Manual oj Sacred Bhetoric. 269 

brought to bear on it. Those influences are 
called motives ; and they act on the will in 
two ways, directly and indirectly. They 
act directly, when they bring before the 
rational will those properties or relations of 
an object or truth that make it appear good, 
beautiful, useful, or attractive, or else, bad, 
ugly, hurtful, or repulsive. They act in- 
directly, when they excite the feelings, or 
passions, and thereby influence the will. 
These two forms of Persuasion were recog- 
nized by Greek rhetoricians who gave to the 
former the name ^ to the latter, ira^, 
Both are thus described by Cicero (Or. 37) : 
Duo sunt quae bene tr aetata ab oratore, ad- 
mirabilem eloquentiam faciant; quorum alte- 
rum est, quod Graeci ethikon vocant, ad na- 
taras et ad mores, et ad omnem vitae consue- 
tudinem accommo datum ; alterum, quod iidem 
pathetikon nominant, quo perturbantur animi, 
et concitantur, in quo uno regnat oratio. lllud 
superius come, jucundum, ad benevolentiam 
conciliandam paratum; hoc veliemens, incen- 
sum, incitatum, quo causae eripiuntur; quod 
cum rapide fertur, sustineri nullo pacto potest. 
These two forms of Persuasion may be 
called the rational and the emotional. The 



270 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

latter rouses, inspires, elevates; but its effect 
is transitory ; the former reasons earnestly, 
but without show of passion or excitement, 
about the practical course which the will 
should adopt in regard to the definite object 
of the sermon. Its strength is in the calm- 
ness and persuasive reasonableness of its 
pleading. Its attitude is that of a trusted 
friend, not of a dictator or of a self-inter- 
ested advocate. Its influence, therefore, 
generally tells on the will, while the in- 
fluence of emotional appeal very often sub- 
sides and evaporates 

Some preachers are drawn by the natural 
constitution of their minds to one of these 
forms of Persuasion, others to the other. 
The ideal preacher, however, will combine 
both forms in his sermons, at the same time 
giving the preponderance to that form 
toward which lies his peculiar bent. 

NoTB. Rational appeal, as it becomes more and 
more earnest, grows naturally into the emotional form, 
somewhat as an act of divine love from being a purely 
spiritual conception may from its intensity and energy 
overflow into the feelings and senses, even filling the 
eyes with tears. — No preacher will be so unwise as to 
make his sermon to consist wholly of emotional ap- 
peals. Yet there are occasions when a short impas- 
sioned address, known in Italy as a feverino, may be 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 271 

made with much spiritual profit. The morning of a 
First Communion, the Forty Hours' Adoration, Good 
Friday, Corpus Christi, are instances of such occasions. 

Persuasion moves the will in one or the 
other of two opposite directions, either to- 
ward an object or truth as good, agreeable, 
desirable, or away from it as bad, un- 
pleasant, hurtful. These two movements 
are produced by two mutually opposite 
classes of motives : those of attraction and 
those of repulsion. The former include 
love, joy, happiness, peace of mind, self- 
interest, duty, hope, desire, beauty and at- 
tractiveness, goodwill and esteem of others, 
good example, courage, gratitude, pity. 
The latter are the antonyms of these — 
hatred, misery, sorrow, remorse, etc. 

It is not the number of motives as much 
as the earnestness with which they are 
urged that tells in a sermon. Moreover, no 
motive should be used that is not naturally 
and obviously suggested in the exposition 
of our theme. Even among these there 
should be one primary, dominant motive 
more insisted on and developed than the 
rest, as that which will have most influence 
on the hearer. When the subject of a 



272 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

sermon is some virtue, motives of attraction 
should be chiefly used ; on the other hand, 
motives of repulsion are the most appropri- 
ate and telling, when we would turn the 
will from vice or sin. Still it is often ad- 
visable if not necessary to contrast a virtue 
with the opposite vice; in which case the 
corresponding motives in the two classes 
should be urged. 

Example. u O my friends, what a bles- 
sing it is for the grown man in after life, to 
be able to look back to the days of his early 
boyhood and say of the old man: " — his 
father — " that is in his grave: 'I never 
heard a bad word from him. I never saw 
him in a position unworthy of a man. I 
never heard from his lips, nor saw in his 
life, anything that could teach me sin or 
vice. His example, by which my character 
was formed, was as that of a saint of Grod 
— a perfect Christian. ' This is the highest 
blessing, perhaps, God can give to a man ; 
and this is the precious blessing that the 
drunkard denies to the children that Grod 
gave him in this world. How do they grow 
up? They see their mother pining away in 
'unwomanly rags' ; they see her lack-lustre 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 273 

eye; they see the evidence of gloomy de- 
spair upon her wan, emaciated face." 

Father Burke. 

Exhorting an audience to act on some 
motive, is not persuasion. They know as 
well as the preacher that they should be in- 
fluenced by that motive ; but knowledge by 
itself is of little account where there is 
question of determining the will to some 
definite act. To be effective, the motive 
must be embodied in some comparison, 
example, parable, or experience. To say, 
for instance: "Give up sin; turn your 
hearts to God; go to Confession; begin a 
new life" — all this has little if any per- 
suasive force in it. So, too, appeals that 
have become stock pulpit expressions, un- 
less they are recast, will scarcely move an 
audience to a change of life. 

We should never express our intention to 
persuade, as by doing so we are in danger 
of putting our hearers into an attitude of 
resistance. Consciously or unconsciously, 
men are jealous of any direct interference 
with their free will ; and they stand on their 
guard against anyone who proposes formally 
to regulate or influence their future conduct. 



274 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

Hence, in the body of a sermon, the more 
covertly and indirectly motives are urged, 
the more effectively they will do their work. 
Still direct appeals are sometimes not only 
allowable but necessary. They have more 
effect on uncultured than on cultured 
hearers, and they are always in place toward 
the end of a sermon. 

When comparison, example, etc., are 
used for the purpose of persuasion a bare 
outline is not sufficient, but copious details 
should be given. "In a description of any- 
thing,' 7 writes Whately, "that is likely to 
act on the feelings, this effect will by no 
means be produced as soon as the under- 
standing is sufficiently informed ; detail and 
expansion are here not only admissible, but 
absolutely necessary, in order that the mind 
may have leisure and opportunity to form 
vivid and distinct ideas. For, as Quintilian 
well observes, he who tells us that a city 
was sacked, although that one word implies 
all that occurred, will produce little if any 
impression on the feelings, in comparison 
of one who sets before us a living descrip- 
tion of the various lamentable circum- 
stances; to tell the whole, he adds, is by no 
means the same as to tell everything. " 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 275 

In emotional appeal, there are two me- 
thods by which the preacher may rouse the 
feelings of his audience. The first is to give 
the fullest possible expression, by language 
and delivery, to the feeling we would ex- 
cite; the second, to let our words, spoken 
calmly, with suppressed emotion, act on the 
audience, without any aid from impassioned 
elocution or delivery. 

Whately calls these the exaggerating and 
the extenuating methods, — names which, 
for want of better, may be retained. It is 
safe to say, that the method of exaggeration 
should be scarcely ever used in preaching 
except as the culmination of the method of 
extenuation. A transition from calm pas- 
sionless exposition or reasoning to the 
former method of appeal is too violent to 
be effective. In truth, although such 
appeal is popularly considered the most 
brilliant effect of oratory, true eloquence 
frequently dispenses with it as hurtful 
rather than helpful to its end, namely, 
effective persuasion. 

The method of extenuation, therefore, is 
that best suited to preaching, as it is the 
most accordant with the mildness of the 



276 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Gospel, and also perhaps with the dignity 
of the pulpit. It works through description 
or narrative, adding detail to detail, until 
the feelings of the audience are wrought to 
a high pitch of excitement. Frequently the 
suppressed passion of the preacher will at 
this point throw off the self-imposed re- 
straint, and convey to his audience the 
magnetism of his own excitement. The 
eye will flash or swim in tears; the voice 
will ring high and clear, or speak in trem- 
ulous, broken accents ; the blanched cheek, 
the twitching lips, the clenched hands, the 
swaying body — all will speak passion and 
enkindle it. Such impassioned outburst 
should be, as I have said, the result or 
climax of pent-up feeling struggling for ex- 
pression ; — it should neither be nor appear 
to be strained or factitious. The preacher, 
too, should be sure that he has carried his 
hearers with him, and that they glow with 
the fire that burns in his impassioned 
language and delivery, 

Examples. 1. "Is there a man among 
you who has the hardihood to blaspheme 
the eternal and almighty Grod, by saying 
that that speechless, senseless, unreasoning, 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 277 

unloving, lifeless brute there is the image of 
Grod! Stand over him, my friends, and 
look at him as he lies there. Speak to him. 
You might as well speak to a corpse. He 
does not understand you. Reason with 
him. You might as well reason with that 
table. Ask him to look at you. There is 
no light in his eyes .... Let his wife come 
there and kneel at his side; he does not 
know her ; he is unable to speak to her . . . 
May I ask you, is he a man? Why, if he 
were a man, he could speak, he could reason 
with you, he could see you and know you 
if you were there. How can you call this 
creature a man? He has lost the power of 
speech, of discerning, of reasoning, of 
loving, of moving. No, my friends, he is 
only the remains of a man ; with this dif- 
ference between him and a corpse : a corpse 
is killed by the angel of Grod commissioned 
to do Grod's sentence; but this man has 
killed himself, by calling in the devil to 
help him in his infamous suicide. " 

Father Burke. 
2. "0 what a moment for the poor soul, 
when it comes to itself, and finds itself sud- 
denly before the judgment seat of Christ! 



278 Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 

O what a moment, when breathless with the 
journey, and dizzy with the brightness, and 
overwhelmed with the strangeness of what 
is happening to him, and unable to realize 
where he is, the sinner hears the voice of 
the accusing spirit, bringing up all the sins 
of his past life, which he has forgotten, or 
which he has explained away, which he 
would not allow to be sins, though he 
suspected they were; when he hears him 
detailing all the mercies of Grod which he 
has despised, all His warnings which he has 
set at nought, all His judgments which he 
has outlived ; when that evil one follows out 
into detail the growth and progress of a lost 
soul, — how it expanded and was confirmed 
in sin, — how it budded forth into leaves 
and flowers, grew into branches, and 
ripened into fruit, — till nothing was want- 
ing for its full condemnation. And, O still 
more terrible, still more distracting, when 
the Judge speaks, and consigns it to the 
jailors, till it shall pay the endless debt 
which lies against it. ' Impossible! I a 
lost soul ! I separated from hope and from 
peace for ever! It is not I of whom the 
Judge so spake. There is a mistake some- 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric, 279 

where ; Christ, Saviour, hold Thy hand, — 
one minute to explain it.' . . . . mighty 
God, O Grod of love, it is too much j it broke 
the heart of Thy sweet Son Jesus to see the 
misery of man spread out before His eyes. 
He died by it as well as for it. And we, 
too, in our measure, our eyes ache, and our 
hearts sicken, and our heads reel, when we 
but feebly contemplate it. O most tender 
heart of Jesus, why wilt Thou not end, 
when wilt Thou end this ever-growing load 
of sin and woe?" Newman. 

The ultimate aim of Persuasion should 
always be the definite object; but its im- 
mediate and direct aim, especially in the ex- 
pository part of the sermon, is frequently 
the removal of prejudices or the conciliation 
of the will to some principle of which the 
definite object is a particular application. 

It is sometimes asked, in what part of a 
sermon may persuasion be most fittingly in- 
troduced. Some answer, at the end of each 
point, or division, and especially in the con- 
clusion. These, no doubt, are the places in 
which formal, explicit appeals to the feel- 
ings are made with most propriety and ef- 
fect ; but it would be a grave mistake to ex- 



280 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 



elude the persuasive element from any part 
of a sermon. From the introduction to the 
conclusion, we must endeavor to gain and 
hold the goodwill of the audience, to inspire 
them with confidence in our guidance, to 
satisfy them that loyal, full-hearted accep- 
tance of our teaching is intimately con- 
nected with the highest and dearest interests 
of their lives. These are offices of persuasion 
quite as much as the direct appeals to the 
feelings and the will to which it is frequent- 
ly confined. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Conclusion. 

When tne theme, or proposition, of a 
sermon has been fnlly expounded by de- 
finition, illustration, and historical develop- 
ment, and when furthermore the definite 
object has been (presumably) attained by 
persuasive reasoning and direct appeal to 
the feelings and the will, — when all 
this has been satisfactorily accomplished, 
nothing more remains to be done except to 
bring the sermon to a fitting conclusion. 

For a doctrinal sermon, this conclusion 
consists simply of a recapitulation of what 
has been said and an animated but not im- 
passioned application of it for the guidance 
of conduct. It scarcely admits of being 
sharply pointed to moral details ; but it can 
and should implant suggestive, stimulating, 
inspiring thought in the mind and heart, — 
thought which in Heaven's good time will 
bear fruit in the conversion of the sinner 
and the greater sanctification of the just. 
(281) 



282 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric . 

The conclusion of a moral sermon has to 
be more elaborate. Its purpose is to make 
a final appeal to the will on behalf of the 
definite object; which appeal must be the 
climax of the sermon, exceeding all previous 
appeals in its impassion ateness and per- 
suasive power. Hie, si usquam, Cicero ob- 
serves, totos eloquentiae fontes aperire licet. 

The effective work of the sermon is 
generally done before we reach the con- 
clusion. The will of the hearer, under the 
influence of grace, has already determined 
to yield itself to our guidance, — to break 
off that bad habit, to practise that virtue, 
to use that means of salvation. What, then, 
is the use of the conclusion? Simply to 
strengthen, deepen, and make permanent 
the good resolution formed by the hearer. 
In photography, there is a process known 
as "the fixing of the picture, " without 
which the first exposure of the impression 
to sunlight would utterly destroy the image. 
Now, in an analogous way, the conclusion 
"fixes" the resolution in the mind of the 
hearer and safeguards it agains effacement. 

It sometimes happens, however, that one 
who has remained unmoved through the 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 283 

body of the sermon yields at length to the 
appeal made in the conclusion. To help 
such a one out of his wavering between sin 
and grace, we should keep on pleading with 
the audience to the end as if they still held 
out against us. Every word of ours will 
tell with equal force on those already per- 
suaded and those we have still to persuade. 
It will confirm the former in their good re- 
solution, and it will do all that human 
agency can, to make the latter, even at the 
last moment, compliant to the promptings 
of grace. However true it is, then, that the 
actual work of persuasion is generally done 
before we reach the conclusion, we should 
still plead with the same earnestness as if 
we knew that we had yet accomplished 
nothing. 

From what I have said it will be seen that 
the conclusion consists essentially in a final, 
most earnest appeal to the feelings and the 
will of the audience in behalf of the definite 
object of the sermon. This appeal ordinari- 
ly contains four elements; namely, recapi- 
tulation, practical resolution (definite ob- 
ject), enforcement by motives, and prayer. 

Note. It is not advisable to make a formal an- 
nouncement of the conclusion. The complete and 



284 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric 

satisfactory exposition and application of the theme 
should indicate sufficiently that the final stage is 
reached, and no preacher should put further strain on 
the attention of his audience. Yet, however covertly 
made, the easy natural transition from the body of a 
sermon to the conclusion requires care and skill, so as 
not to suggest distracting trains of thought. 

1. Recapitulation. This is an abstract 
of the development of the proposition. In 
most discourses it is absolutely necessary, 
as it gives a clear, comprehensive view of 
the entire subject, impresses it on the 
memory, and serves as a foundation for the 
crowning appeal to be made in the con- 
clusion. 

Note. Professor Phelps, in his Theory of Preaching, 
says: "Not all discussions admit of recapitulation. 
The salient points of a discussion may be so simple 
and so few, that to recapitulate them would burden 
them with needless form. Recapitulate a hortatory 
sermon, and you reduce it to burlesque." I am not 
at all convinced of the truth of this remark, regard- 
ing hortatory sermons. These consist mainly of 
several motives used to persuade to some moral pur- 
pose; and I fail to see what "burlesque" there is in 
summing up all those motives in the conclusion, and 
thereby bringing their united pressure to bear on the 
will. Si per singula minus moverat, turba valet. 
(Quintilian.) 

Brevity is the chief characteristic of re- 
capitulation. Nothing cools interest in a 
speaker's words more effectually thui the 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 285 

thought that he is about to give in sub- 
stance the whole sermon over again. A 
few pithy, well chosen words are enough 
to give the main ideas of the discourse, 
and these may be conveyed in such a way 
that the audience will not perceive their 
object. Of course, illustrations and texts 
would be here out of place. Toward the 
end of a sermon, the movement should be 
rapid; hence, it is sufficient, after repeat- 
ing the proposition, to recapitulate the 
divisions and the motives adduced for the 
attainment of the definite object. 

Example. In his Discourse on the Fit- 
ness of the Grlories of Mary, Cardinal New- 
man recapitulates indirectly but very ef- 
fectively as follows: "And now, my dear 
brethren, what is befitting in us, if all that 
I have been telling you is fitting in Mary? 
If the Mother of Emmanuel ought to be 
the first of creatures in sanctity and beauty ; 
if it became her to be free from all sin 
from the very first, and from the moment 
she received her first grace to begin to 
merit more; and if such as was her be- 
ginning, such was her end, her conception 
immaculate and her death an assumption; 



286 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

if she died, but revived, and is exalted on 
high; what is befitting in the children of 
such a Mother, but an imitation, in their 
measure, of her devotion, her meekness, 
her simplicity, her modesty, her sweet- 
ness !" 

2. The practical resolution, or definite 
object. This should be a direct and evi- 
dent inference from the recapitulation. 
Far-fetched deductions, no matter how 
practical, will have little effect, because 
the audience will not see the connection 
between them and the body of the sermon. 
Should there be any difficulties in carrying 
out the resolution, the means of removing 
them ought to have been given in the 
body of the sermon; as it is altogether 
too late to treat of them in the conclusion. 

As I have said more than once, we must 
guard against all appearance of dictation 
in urging the practical resolution of the 
sermon. The will revolts against coercion; 
and it is so jealous of its freedom, that it 
often hardens itself to persuasion because it 
suspects that this, its sovereign prerogative, 
is tampered with or endangered. One mode 
of avoiding such suspicion is to propose the 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 287 

resolution in the first person — for ourselves 
as well as for the people. If we are to be 
a pattern of the flock from the heart, we 
should honestly practise every virtue and 
shun every vice about which we speak 
from the pulpit; and there is no shame, 
but great edification, in admitting that we 
priests offend in many things. Let us then 
put ourselves with our people before the 
throne of divine Mercy, supplicating pardon 
for the past and resolving on amendment 
for the future. 

St. Alphonsus gives an excellent method 
of proposing the resolution; namely, by 
embodying it in an act of contrition. The 
preacher repeats the words of the act with 
all the earnestness and fervor he can com- 
mand ; he gives the chief motives for sor- 
row, — fear, ingratitude, love; and in the 
purpose of amendment, he dwells with 
special stress on the resolution of the 
sermon, giving in a few words the means of 
keeping it faithfully. If he feels that he 
has carried the audience with him, and that 
their hearts are already glowing with the 
ardent words he has just spoken, it is best, 
as the saying has it, to "let well enough 
alone," and to finish with a prayer. 



288 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

3 . Enforcement of resolution by motives. 
It will frequently happen that the audience 
will have to be roused to an emotional state 
by strong practical motives, before they are 
prepared to follow the preacher in making 
the act of contrition just mentioned. In 
this case the resolution is proposed after the 
recapitulation — not uncommonly in the 
interrogative form; and then the motives 
for accepting it are urged in a series as- 
cending to a climax, until the intent look, 
the hushed silence, — perhaps the sobs and 
tears, — of the crowd before us give evi- 
dence of their being deeply moved by our 
words and prepared to adopt the resolution 
we have presented. Then moved ourselves 
as much as those we address, we implore the 
Father of mercies through the Blood of His 
Son to pardon us for the past, to accept 
our heart-felt sorrow for it, and to 
strengthen us to keep the resolution that 
we now make. (Here, it will be observed, 
the act of contrition and the final prayer 
are united.) 

Note. The means of practising the resolution 
should not be mixed up with the motives given in 
the conclusion. Young preachers are apt to ignore 
this caution and to make the end of their sermon 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 289 

consist of a stale, wearisome eulogy on prayer, the 
Sacraments, flight of occasions, etc., as the only 
safeguard of virtue, the only antidote of vice. True 
and practical as such words are, they have no fresh- 
ness to please the imagination, no point to touch 
the heart. 

We have seen that persuasive reasoning, 
examples, comparisons, and other forms of 
illustration are the ordinary means by which, 
in the body of a sermon, motives are brought 
to bear on the will. Such means would not 
be in keeping with the purely emotional 
character, nor indeed with the requisite 
brevity, of the conclusion. Hence instead 
of them, the preacher, glowing with the 
vivid conception of his theme, breaks forth 
into the language of all genuine passion, — 
entreaty, exclamation, apostrophe, — a 
language above all the rules of art, which 
only the inspiration of the moment can 
suggest. 

Although an apostolic man, in this last 
fervid appeal, will be restrained by no 
bashf illness, no fear of excess, no anti- 
cipation of censure or ridicule, yet he will 
regulate his strongest expressions by the 
demands of propriety and taste. He will 
especially keep in mind the character of 



290 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

his audience, the nature of his theme, and 
the compass of his own power of impas- 
sioned expression. 

a) If the audience remains cold and 
silent through the sermon, notwithstanding 
the appeals made to them, any impassioned 
address to their feelings in the conclusion 
would be as ineffectual as hammering cold 
iron. A few earnest words of persuasive 
reasoning may possibly touch them; — 
when these have been spoken, the hearer 
must be left to the working of divine 
grace. Another kind of irresponsive audi- 
ence is that made up of so-called refined 
people who affect to be pained by any 
outspoken expression of strong feeling in 
the pulpit. They patronize it in music 
and the drama, but they pronounce it 
"bad form" in preaching. I confess I 
should have little sympathy with those 
people, if I were not forced to admit that 
we priests too often give them reason to 
complain of our exaggerated, unartistic 
expressions of strong and deep emotions. 
We are not altogether to blame for this; 
for, having the poor always with us, who 
are moved more by sensible impressions 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 291 

than by reasoning, we need to be some- 
what melodramatic to be effective. But on 
the principle of becoming "all to all, in 
order to gain all," we certainly should 
know how to adapt our elocution and de- 
livery to any audience we have to address, 
so that our ministry be not reviled. We 
have a mission to the cultured as well as to 
the uncultured ; and to both we must preach 
as men having power; both must regard 
us as their superiors, if our preaching is to 
bear fruit among them. 

A thoughtful Protestant writer (Professor 
Mahaffy) confesses that among the better 
classes, and with educated congregations, 
he thinks the day of preaching is gone 
by. His words are full of suggestion for 
us, although used with direct reference to 
the Protestant church of Ireland. " Taking 
first the educated classes," he writes, "a 
very large body nowadays, and often reach- 
ing down to the artisan or servant, who 
reads his newspaper and hears the conver- 
sation of enlightened people, — there is no 
longer a difference of intellectual level be- 
tween the preacher and his audience. He 
is no longer standing forth, if not an in- 



292 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

spired, at least an authorised and authori- 
tative teacher, who knows vastly more, and 
can speak vastly better, than those who 
hear him. Nor is he their only instructor, 
upon whose guidance they must depend for 
all their spiritual sustenance. They can 
read other opinions; they can search the 

Scriptures, even in the original 

If a second Paul were to stand forth to this 
people, even though they had the discretion 
or the good taste not to mock, they would 
say to him calmly, We will hear thee again 
of this matter. To such people, preaching 

— at least regular, every-Sunday preaching 

— is wellnigh useless, and for all practical 
purposes an anachronism. " 

Are we losing our hold on any class of 
our people, because our preaching, and 
especially our appeals to tne feelings, are 
too often below the level of school oratorical 
exercises'? 

b) The nature of our theme should regu- 
late the kind of motives to be used, and the 
manner of presenting them, in the con- 
clusion. Death, judgment, Hell, Impurity, 
Drunkenness, and the grosser vices general- 
ly demand appeals to our sensitive nature, 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 293 

through fear and terror, shame, 'Self-con- 
tempt, remorse ; and these appeals must be 
made with all the energy and vehemence of 
which we are capable. Most themes, how- 
ever, developed in the Christian pulpit 
should be enforced by motives that appeal 
to our higher nature — hope, desire, grati- 
tude, love, etc. The Testament of mercy 
and love under which we live justifies us in 
preaching unbounded hope of salvation for 
all mankind ; and the example of our divine 
Saviour teaches us to win souls by love — 
not to coerce them by fear. Hence we 
should be untrue to our mission, were we to 
make the terrors of judgment the keynote 
of our message to the world. Nevertheless, 
eternal punishment for unrepented sin is a 
terrible reality that must not be put out of 
sight, because belief in it is a powerful help 
to higher motives, and for some persons is 
the most effectual means of overcoming 
violent carnal temptations. 

c) Some preachers are incapable of those 
impassioned outbursts up to which the 
development of many themes naturally 
leads. Either they feel no passion them- 
selves; or they cannot express what they 



294 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

feel in adequate words ; or their voices have 
not the required compass or pliancy; or, 
finally, self-consciousness quenches what- 
ever fire might otherwise animate their 
language and delivery. No matter what 
the cause of such inability, whether remov- 
able or not, it is safe to say, that any ex- 
pression of feeling so crude and amateurish 
as to violate good taste and to excite ridicule 
in any part of the audience, should never 
be attempted. Better infinitely tell a plain 
unvarnished tale, than tear a passion to 
tatters. 

Yet, in a normal sermon, what I have al- 
ready said holds good — that a preacher 
should ordinarily make a direct appeal to 
the feelings toward the end of his discourse. 
The principal means to be used in this 
appeal are: entreaty, reproach, interro- 
gation, exclamation, and apostrophe. A 
few words about each of these. 

1. Entreaty is a stock form of bringing 
a sermon to a conclusion. Few preachers 
can be found who ever omit the time- 
worn formula, "Let me now exhort you in 
conclusion' ? or its equivalent. And yet I 
do not see any useful purpose it serves. 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 295 

It contains neither argument nor motive, 
and therefore neither convinces nor per- 
suades. It draws attention to the approach- 
ing end of the sermon, and thereby distracts 
the audience at a point where distraction is 
most hurtful to the fruit for which we have 
been laboring. Notwithstanding these ob- 
jections, entreaty and exhortation are very 
much favored by Scripture usage, especially 
in the Epistles of St. Paul. No doubt, we 
also could entreat and exhort with ad- 
vantage, if we had the moral weight of the 
Apostle of the Gentiles. 

2. Eeproach is a strong motive to right 
living when conveyed in a kind fatherly 
manner ; but when it is accompanied with 
sarcasm, irony, ridicule, or bitterness in 
any form, it drives the hearer to protest and 
exculpation, and not unfrequently hardens 
him in his sin. Reproach is closely allied 
to scolding ; and to this latter, no one takes 
kindly. Dissatisfaction with one's self is 
the strongest feeling that reproach should 
produce ; and this feeling should be always 
accompanied with hope, desire, courage, re- 
solution to rise to the higher life of grace. 

3. Exclamation "is the expression of a 



296 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

thought, just as it is strongly felt, not by a 
logical affirmation, but by some abrupt, in- 
verted, or elliptical construction." (G-e- 
nung.) This is the usual form of direct 
appeal to the feelings. Its power lies in its 
earnestness and extends to every passion of 
the soul. 

Example. "Oh, the misery for us, as 
many of us as shall be in that number! 
Oh, the awful thought for all eternity! 
Oh, the remorseful sting, 'I was called, I 
might have answered, and I did not! 7 And 
oh, the blessedness, if we can look back on 
the time of trial, when friends implored and 
enemies scoffed, and say, — The misery for 
me, which would have been, had I not fol- 
lowed on, had I hung back, when Christ 
called! " Newman. 

4. Interrogation is frequently used, not 
to elicit an answer, but to emphasise a state- 
ment or to add force to the presentment of 
a motive. When thus used it becomes a 
figure of speech, and when repeated in a 
series mounting to a climax, it exercises al- 
most overwhelming persuasive power on an 
audience. It has this advantage over Ex- 
clamation, that it appeals to the personal 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 297 

judgment and feeling of the audience, there- 
by conciliating their favor and, to some ex- 
tent, disarming criticism. Moreover, it is 
as available for exposition as for persuasion, 
being a favorite mode with public speakers 
of urging an argument. 

Example. "When at length, death 
gnaws at your bones, and knocks at your 
heart, when staggering and worn out, your 
courage wasted, your hope gone, your 
purity, and, long ago, your peace — will 
he who first enticed your steps serve your 
extremity with one office of kindness? Will 
he stay your head, cheer your dying agony 
with one word of hope, or light the way for 
your coward steps to the grave, or weep 
when you are gone, or send one pitiful scrap 
to your desolate family? What reveler 
wears crape for a dead drunkard? What 
gang of gamblers ever intermitted a game 
for the death of a companion? What harlot 
weeps for a harlot ? What debauchee mourns 
for a debauchee? They would carouse at 
your funeral, — gamble at your funeral. 
If one flush more of pleasure were to be had 
by it, they would drink shame and ridicule 
to your memory out of your own skull, and 



298 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

roar in bacchanal revelry over your dam- 
nation! Oh! the cruel heartlessness of 
sin!" H. W. Beecher. 

"And is there pardon any more for sin, 

since sin has done a deed like this? 

Who dare stand beneath the Cross and say 
that it is hard for sin to be forgiven? Who, 
in those hours of agony — hours the most 
sacred and solemn that the world can ever 
witness — who stood by Him in His agony? 
Mary might well be there, for she was His 
mother, and she was sinless; John might 
well be there, for Jesus loved him for his 
purity ; but Magdalen — she, but a little 
while ago, had lifted an unblushing brow of 
sin in the streets of Jerusalem — should such 
a one as she be there ? Oh ! dear Jesus, Thou 
wouldst have it so; and what sinner can 
hesitate to approach Thee, when he knows 
that the last look of love from an expiring 
Saviour was shared alike by Mary the sin- 
less and Mary the sinner ! ' ' 

Rev. Joseph Farrell. 

5. Apostrophe represents, as speaking 
or spoken to, absent persons or personified 
objects. It is the strongest of all rhetorical 
figures, and can be used effectively only 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 299 

when the imagination of the preacher and 
the audience soars high above the plane 
of sober, everyday thought. The greatest 
pulpit orators have been cautious and 
sparing in the use of it, yet no other 
figure is capable of producing such thril- 
ling effect. Its use in ordinary parochial 
sermons can scarcely be excused from the 
charge of pretentiousness. Its rarity is 
one of the sources of its strength. 

Example. In the peroration of his 
sermon on the Fewness of the Elect, 
Massillon made use of a figure resembling 
apostrophe in a passage never surpassed 
for power and sublimity. He imagined 
the last day and hour of the world had 
come and Jesus Christ was about to appear 
in His glory in the midst of the audience 
to judge them. "Croyez vous," the 
preacher exclaimed, "qu'il s'y trouvat 
seulement dix justes? Paroissez: ou etes^ 
vous? Restes d'Israel, passez a la droite . . . 
Dieu, ou sont vos elus J ? et que reste-t-il 
pour votre partage!" These words pro- 
duced an instantaneous movement; and 
the whole audience started to their feet, 
trembling and panic-stricken, as if judg- 
ment were already upon them. 



300 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

6. Prayer. A fitting climax and con- 
clusion to every moral sermon is a prayer 
to Glod the Father through Jesus Christ 
for strength to carry out the proposed 
resolution. This prayer should be short, 
fervent, composed, as far as possible, of 
Scripture texts, and above all, it should 
be the natural outgrowth — the crowning 
grace and perfection of the sermon. When 
a priest preaches Sunday after Sunday to 
the same congregation, his own good taste 
will keep him from the mannerism of 
ending all his sermons with prayer. Yet 
it must be admitted that such mannerism 
is but little noticed, when the prayer is 
manifestly the genuine, spontaneous ex- 
pression of the preacher's piety and zeal. 

The final prayer need not always be a 
petition for grace ; it may some times take 
the form of a tender, affectionate address 
to Heaven, revealing sentiments of faith, 
hope, love, contrition, etc., in keeping 
with the development of the theme. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
Meditation of Theme. 

Before we begin to read up matter for our 
sermon , we have a very important work to 
do, — a work scarcely ever alluded to by 
writers on sacred eloquence and seldom 
done by ordinary preachers. It is the work 
of thinking out our theme for ourselves, in- 
dependently of books. Such independent 
thought is a necessary condition of all 
scholarly knowledge, and should, therefore, 
be the foundation of all the knowledge we 
communicate to our people. 

"What do I know of this theme that I 
intend to speak about? How should it be 
divided? Can I give a popular explanation 
of the doctrine it contains? Can I illustrate 
it? Do I know any texts of Scripture and 
any facts of Church history that bear on it? 
What is its practical application to life and 
conduct? By what motives may it be best 
enforced V y Meditation of our theme im- 
(301) 



302 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

plies the careful study of these questions; 
it, therefore, requires us to prepare a skele- 
ton sermon, not from external help, but 
from the knowledge we have already stored 
up. Of course, we do not preach a sermon 
so prepared, unless our reading has been so 
extensive and our memory is so tenacious, 
that we have at hand within us all the re- 
quirements for the exposition and enforce- 
ment of our theme, as accurate and com- 
plete as they can be found in books. This 
is rarely the case; hence, the meditation of 
our theme has usually to be supplemented 
by full and judicious topical reading. 

But the supplemental knowledge for 
sermons to be drawn from sources outside 
our own minds is not as much as we or- 
dinarily think, nor is it at all comparable in 
effective force to that which we derive from 
the independent study of our theme. 

Our Catholic preachers are usually too 
diffident of their powers — they lean too 
much on the work of others — in the pre- 
paration of their sermons. Yet I am con- 
vinced that, with earnest thought on their 
theme, they could evolve much of the matter 
that they seek for in books. No doubt, 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 303 

they should not rely on memory for Script- 
ure texts and doctrinal definitions; but 
these, after all, form only a very small part 
of their discourse. The most of it is taken 
up with illustration and enforcement; and 
there is no reason why matter for these may 
not be drawn, at least in part, from the 
preacher's own store of knowledge, previous- 
ly acquired from books and experience. If 
we analyze the sermons of any of those men 
who have acquired world-wide fame as pul- 
pit orators, we shall find that they were 
above all things original, that they never 
culled and retailed other men's thoughts, 
no matter how beautiful and appropriate, 
but out of their own treasure brought forth 
new things and old. It is but false modesty 
to say that we can never become famous 
pulpit orators, and therefore need not aim 
at originality. It is a laudable ambition to 
aspire to do GTod's work along the line fol- 
lowed by those who did it best; and that 
line was undoubtedly in the direction of 
original, independent meditation of the 
theme. 

Besides, the knowledge gained by this 
meditation will be communicated to the 



304 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

audience with very much greater freshness 
and force than that which is derived from 
books. The former knowledge we have 
made our own ; therefore it bears the stamp 
of our individuality, and has for the hearer 
the interest and inspiring power of a new 
creation. It may be nothing new in itself, 
but it is told in a new way — a way in which 
it has never been told before — hence its 
charm and power. On the other hand, 
knowledge taken from books and given 
out without assimilation or adjustment with 
knowledge already acquired, has but little 
vital force in it; it is not realized in the 
speaker's own mind and heart, and there- 
fore it is not energized with that earnest- 
ness and fulness of detail and wealth of 
illustration that would impress it on the 
minds and hearts of the audience. 

There is no doubt that the meditation of 
the theme here recommended supposes 
mental qualities of a high order in the 
preacher. Concentration of attention, as- 
sociation of ideas, fertility of invention, 
logical acumen, — all these are required to 
bring out what latent knowledge there is in 
him of the doctrine he is about to teach. 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 305 

In other words, he should be a man of 
active, fertile, well-trained, and well-dis- 
ciplined mind. 

But mental qualities will profit little with- 
out a deep sense of the obligation of using 
them. Many well equipped minds are too 
indolent to think out original matter for 
sermons; they do not see the necessity of 
it as long as abundance of second-hand 
matter may with little or no trouble be 
gathered from books. The consequence is 
that their preaching is worth just what it 
costs. 

The habit of daily meditation and of 
spiritual reading for our own good makes it 
easy to collect original matter for sermons. 
Indeed, the thoughts and sentiments that 
we take home to ourselves in prayer are 
those most easy as well as useful to bring 
home to others in preaching. But apart 
from this consideration, meditation is sub- 
stantially the same process, whether the end 
be our own or our neighbor's welfare. A 
priest, then, who gives twenty minutes or 
half an hour every morning to the consider- 
ation of some revealed truth in its bearing 
on his own life, will find little difficulty in 



306 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

studying the bearing of that or any other 
revealed truth on the lives of others. 

Note. It is questionable if a priest would gain any- 
thing by meditating for his own benefit the theme of 
his sermon. There is too much temptation while so 
meditating to adapt his reflections and apply his con- 
clusions to others. Such an exercise would be a useful 
study, but it could scarcely be called an act of personal 
devotion. It would be much better to think occasion- 
ally during the preparation how far he himself is in- 
fluenced by what he urges on his people. 

An hour's meditation on the theme will 
be amply sufficient to collect and arrange 
all that the preacher knows about it. The 
earlier in the week this hour is devoted to 
the purpose the better will be the result. 
The order of the questions at the beginning 
of this chapter should be generally followed 
in the meditation; and, of course, the 
thoughts that present themselves ought to 
be written down. After each note thus 
taken more or less space should be left to 
be filled up afterwards from our topical 
reading. 

Note. The more carefully and tastefully notes are 
taken, the more chance they have of being kept for 
future use. They need not be written in complete 
sentences ; but they should not be so abbreviated, 
that the reading of them afterwards will present any 
difficulty. It is not advisable to have separate books 
for preparatory notes and written sermons. When 



Manual of Sacred Ehetoric. 307 

but one book is used, reference to the notes is much 
easier. A thin, well-bound, quarto manuscript will 
be found the most available. 

Young preachers will find their chief 
difficulty at this stage of their preparation 
in working out their own division of the 
theme. Yet the individuality of the sermon 
is seen in the division more, perhaps, than 
in any other of its elements. I think that 
sermons written for practice, as well as those 
written early on the mission, should have 
themes so simple, that they could not be 
divided. Each of them would thus consist 
of one point only, and with the exposition 
and enforcement of this twenty minutes 
could be easily covered. Carpenters serv- 
ing their apprenticeship are not allowed to 
spoil wood in attempting elaborate and com- 
plicated work : they have to become adepts 
first in simple, easy constructions. — If 
our young preachers were subjected or sub- 
jected themselves to a similar discipline, 
there would be fewer exhibitions of crude, 
amateur work in the pulpit. 

I would therefore, recommend young 
preachers to limit their theme to one point, 
or head, and to concentrate all their ener- 
gies on the development of this until they 
become perfectly familiar with all the forms 



308 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

of exposition and persuasion. Even when 
they will have grown older, they will often 
find it wiser and more useful to confine 
themselves to one point than to spend their 
energy and burden their hearers' attention 
by adhering blindly to the traditional three- 
fold or manifold division. Indeed , the 
form of exposition given in this work is 
better adapted to undivided than to divided 
sermons. 

However, there are numerous themes that 
cannot be adequately treated without di- 
vision. When a young preacher takes up 
any of them, he ought to deliberate how to 
divide it without the aid of sermon books. 
His first attempts may be crude and un- 
artistic ; but they will be his own, and there- 
fore more natural — more in keeping with 
the rest of his discourse, than those he 
might borrow from printed sources. Self- 
reliance will serve him here much more than 
self-distrust; for, although he should not 
have the silliness of putting himself on a 
level with great preachers or even with the 
writers of sermon books (a lower class al- 
together), yet he is a better judge than 
either of these can be of what division is 
best adapted to the particular audience he 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 309 

is about to address. The arrangement of a 
sermon intended for the court of Louis the 
Fourteenth — though the sermon were 
preached by Massillon — is not necessarily 
the arrangement best suited to an Ohio or 
a Kentucky congregation. Nay more, a 
zealous pastor without any pretention to 
eloquence may judge rightly that the di- 
vision and treatment of a theme found in 
some favorite American sermon book is not 
as suitable to his people as that which he 
himself devises. 

Of course, it will sometimes happen that 
in the books we read for matter we shall 
come across a better division than the one 
that has grown out of our meditation of the 
theme. When this is so, we are plainly 
obliged to set aside our own for the better 
form of treatment thus presented to us, as 
our primary duty in preaching is to confer 
on our hearers the greatest possible spiritual 
benefit. 

NoTE. As, in listening to a sermon, we can infer 
from various indications how much careful study was 
spent in preparing it, so, too, in reading a sermon, it is 
not difficult to distinguish, at least, broadly, how much 
of it is the result of original study or meditation, how 
much, of preparatory or remembered, though not di- 
gested, reading. The more eminent the preacher, the 



310 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

less bookishness in his style and the less book learning 
in his matter. Sermons abounding in apposite illus- 
trations — similes, analogies, antitheses, etc. — are the 
work of original thinkers ; but those that consist most- 
ly of abstractions and are taken up with teaching with- 
out any thought of pleasing- or moving, if not the pro- 
ducts of metaphysical or unemotional minds, are gener- 
ally reproductions of unassimilated reading. 

The reading of spiritual books, wisely 
selected, will help very much the meditation 
of one's theme. It stores the mind with 
spiritual knowledge, refines and elevates its 
tone, and kindles in the heart that fervor, 
enthusiasm, inspiration which every true 
preacher tries to impart to his hearers. 
Among ascetical, as well as among literary 
authors, each of us has a favorite who has 
a masterful influence over the intellect, 
feelings and will that none of the others 
can command. In literature, such domi- 
nation is often hurtful ; but no hurt can be 
feared in the ascetical life from the most ab- 
solute surrender of ourselves to any ap- 
proved spiritual writer with whose mind 
and heart ours beat in perfect accord. We 
should always keep one or other of such 
works by us, to stimulate us to think or 
write and to sustain us when we find our 
attention or energy failing. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Reading for Matter. 

We have now taken the first important 
step in the immediate preparation of our 
sermon; namely, the meditation of our 
theme with a view to present it adequately 
to our people. Very few preachers, how- 
ever, could produce a good sermon from 
this meditation alone. The definitions 
would probably fail in clearness and accur- 
acy, and the illustrations, in point and 
appositeness ; while the historical develop- 
ment would in all likelihood be inexact in 
quotations, unscholarly in exegesis, and 
vague and uninteresting in the narration of 
facts. What, then, is the next step to be 
taken? It is to read for supplemental 
matter, — for more definite knowledge, for 
new ideas, for the broader comprehension 
of our theme that communion with great 
minds is apt to give us. 
(311) 



312 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

The knowledge gathered from books 
should be absorbed, assimilated, " made our 
own/' before it is imparted to our audience. 
We stand in the pulpit, not to echo the 
thoughts of others, no matter how eminent 
they be ; we have a direct message to deliver 
from our divine Master, and, as faithful 
servants, we are supposed to have realized 
its meaning, to be saturated with faith in it, 
to have made it the guide and rule of our 
own lives before we enforce it as the guide 
and rule of the lives of others. This we 
surely do not do, when we commit to mem- 
ory and deliver verbatim as our own whole 
passages taken from some great writer or 
speaker. In ninety nine cases out of a 
hundred such plagiarized passages are un- 
suited to the audience to which they are 
addressed; and instead of being a source 
of edification, their inconsistency with the 
rest of the sermon provokes ridicule and 
contempt. We are, indeed, justified in 
using the division of our theme made by 
some eminent preacher, should we have 
failed in making a suitable division of it 
by ourselves ; but the development of the 
parts should be all our own. In fact, as 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 313 

long as we do not preach thoughts that are 
our own or that we have made our own, we 
shall never attain any respectable proficien- 
cy in the pulpit. We shall have no confi- 
dence in ourselves, even in giving simple 
catechetical instructions. And when we 
are called upon to speak in public on some 
subject of local or national importance, we 
shall either speak the dullest platitudes, or, 
by utterly breaking down, bring discredit 
on ourselves and the Church we are sup- 
posed to represent. 

Note. It cannot be denied that good has been done 
in the past by taking the words of others and delivering 
them as one's own. Zealous men were in the habit of 
doing so formerly, because, through stress of persecu- 
tion, the Church had then to dispense with much ne- 
cessary learning in her ministers ; and many of those 
called to the care of souls felt themselves imcompetent 
to prepare and preach original sermons. But those 
times are past, and with them is past the justification 
of reproducing the sermons of others. With the oppor- 
tunities of advanced intellectual culture we possess 
and in view of the high standard of education among 
our American people, I say advisedly that no young 
man should be ordained from our seminaries who is 
not able to prepare and preach his own sermons. 

We may read for matter in two ways : the 
first is to read some recognized author who 
has written on the subject of our sermon, 
and to take notes of all that we find useful to 



314 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

our purpose. The second is to read only by 
topics ; that is, to read only those passages 
of an author which will supplement the 
knowledge we already have of our theme. 

The former manner of reading is necessa- 
ry for those who have little or no knowledge 
of what they are about to preach. They 
cannot study the bare theme on which they 
have to speak, as a school boy studies his 
lessons for class. They must have at least 
a general knowledge of the subject to which 
the theme belongs ; and even of the theme 
itself they must know more than they will 
impart to their hearers. No one ever teaches 
efficiently who, besides what he conveys, 
has not a reserve of intellectual wealth 
which time or the occasion does not allow 
him to exhaust. Some will protest that they 
have no time for so much reading. But 
they have only themselves to blame that 
they are obliged to it ; for it would not be 
necessary if they had given a little time 
every day uniformly to the study of theology 
and Sacred Scripture. The reading, how- 
ever, here required is not so great as may 
at first sight be imagined. The vague 
knowledge of the subject that remains from 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 315 

seminary days may easily be made fresh 
and definite by cursory perusal of the heads 
of chapters or of a good general index with 
occasional references to the text. The 
theme itself will, of course, require more 
careful and reflective reading, which should 
not be deferred to the latter part of the 
week, as the longer the mind has to dwell 
on the knowledge taken in, the more thor- 
oughly will the ideas be assimilated. 

The second way of reading for matter, 
called the topical, or by topics, is that which 
is usually adopted by preachers, because, as 
a rule, they have a sufficiently full know- 
ledge of their subject-matter to dispense 
them from the wider reading spoken of 
above. When meditating their theme, 
however, they generally find that they are 
doubtful or ignorant of some things belong- 
ing to its development, while their know- 
ledge of the rest is sufficiently full and pre- 
cise. They refer to books, then, for light, 
not on the subject or the theme, but on 
those points of the latter about which they 
are in darkness; and this is reading by 
topics. Much self-restraint is needed to 
confine this reading to what is absolutely 



316 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

necessary. All side issues must be ignored ; 
and all purely speculative questions sug- 
gested by the topic, no matter how useful 
and interesting to ourselves, must be left 
to after investigation. 

Before we begin to read by topics, we 
should have written out under distinct 
heads all that we know about the theme. 
Should our knowledge under any of those 
heads be incomplete, we should leave place 
for notes to be taken from books. For this 
purpose, it will be useful to keep before us 
the following questions arranged in the 
order in which the proposition is normally 
developed. When there are several points, 
the questions are the same for each. 

1. Definition: — 

Terms to be defined ? 

Doctrine to be defined ? 

Enumeration of parts ? 

Cause and effect ? 

Adjuncts'? 

Properties and accidents ? . . . . 

2. Illustration: — 

Examples? 

Similes? . 

Metaphors? 

Comparisons ? 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 317 

Contrasts? , . 

Analogies? 

Quotations? 

3 . Historical Development : — 

Sacred Scripture ? ...... 

Church History ? 

Profane History ? 

Eecent Occurrences ? 

Personal Experience ? 

4. Removal of Obstacles: — 

On part of Intellect ? 

On part of Will? 

5. Motives: — 

Of Attraction, direct (Will) ? . . . 

Of Attraction, indirect (Passions)? . 

Of Eepulsion, direct (Will)? . . . 

Of Eepulsion, indirect (Passions)? . 
It is scarcely necessary to remark that all 
these questions need not be answered in 
every sermon we write. The preacher must 
use his own judgment and taste in deciding 
what matter suggested by them should be 
developed and what passed over. 

Note. If any one be disposed to complain of the 
mental work enjoined in this and the preceding chap- 
ter, he should remember that as sacred oratory is one 
of the fine arts and, indeed, the noblest of them all, no 
one can hope to become proficient in it unless he make 
up his mind to spare no labor or drudgery it may 
demand of him. I know well, there is an impression 



318 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

among some of us that preaching is "the easiest thing 
in the world." This would be true enough, if any 
kind of talking on sacred things in the pulpit were 
preaching; but it is not so, any more than striking 
the keys of a piano at random is music, or smearing 
canvas with ochre is painting. 

To reconcile ourselves to the laborious 
details necessary for efficient preaching, we 
must love it as an art and, still more, we 
must reverence it as the instrument by 
which God's boundless mercy and love are 
proclaimed to the world, by which innum- 
erable souls are predestined to be saved, and 
by which the zealous, painstaking preacher 
himself merits to be crowned with a special 
glory in eternity. 

1. And now as to the books we are to 
consult. Sacred Scripture, of course holds 
the first place, as it with Tradition is the 
fountain-head of divine revelation. The 
Bible should be at the right hand of every 
preacher while he is preparing his sermon. 
But the Bible will not help him much 
unless he has some means of rinding out 
readily the required texts on whatever 
subject he is studying. This means is 
supplied by a Concordance, a work absolute- 
ly necessary to every preacher. Another 
necessary aid to Bible consultation is an 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 319 

up-to-date commentary, at least on the 
G-ospels and the Epistles. The amount 
of exegesis done in our seminaries is of 
necessity too small to be any help in the 
preparation of a sermon. All that the most 
competent professor of Scripture can do for 
his pupils is to inspire them with such a love 
of the Written Word as will lead them to 
continue the study of it in after life on the 
mission. If he does not do this, the time 
spent in the Scripture class might be, per- 
haps, better spent on the playground. 

2. Theology develops and systematizes 
the revelation made in Scripture and Tradi- 
tion. It not only teaches in precise and 
reliable terms what that revelation is, and 
when and under what circumstances it was 
made ; but traces its history down to our 
own day, shows the vicissitudes it has 
undergone, and defends it by irrefragable 
arguments against those who inpugn it. 
Moreover, in one of its branches (Moral 
Theology), it teaches the principles and 
laws by which, through our Mediator Jesus 
Christ, we are guided to our last end, and 
also the helps (Sacraments, etc.) by which 
we are enabled to attain it. 

From this view of Theology it is manifest 



320 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

that it ranks in importance next to Sacred 
Scripture as a source of reliable matter for 
sermons. We should consult it especially 
for Scripture texts bearing on our theme, 
for definitions, for historical development 
of doctrine, and for the refutation of objec- 
tions. The compendiums of theology used 
in seminaries are practically worthless as 
helps in the preparation of a sermon. Hence 
every priest should be provided with at least 
one of the larger works on each branch of the 
science. He should also have St. Thomas's 
Summa and never weary of referring to it. 
It may seem too much to recommend more- 
over the works written by what may be called 
specialist theologians on particular subjects, 
such as the Incarnation, Grace, the Infused 
Virtues, etc. Yet the help derived from ref- 
erence to them can scarcely be exaggerated. 
3. Church and profane history, the Lives 
of the Saints, and ascetical works will sup- 
ply much necessary matter for topical read- 
ing. They are particularly useful for the 
examples they abound in and for the light 
they throw on the development of doctrine. 
Still they will not help a preacher much 
unless he has the habit of reading them 
apart from the proximate preparation of his 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 321 

sermon. Even with this habit, he must 
have a tenacious memory and much mental 
activity in associating related ideas; else 
the most extensive and assiduous reading 
will be of little service to him. Perhaps 
the best way of making those studies help- 
ful for preaching is to take notes of striking 
passages, examples, etc., that we find in 
them; and afterwards to index those notes 
according to the subjects they illustrate. 

4. Plans of sermons, Thesauri Predica- 
torum, Panoramas, Adjumenta, and all 
other artificial helps composed to facilitate 
the preparation of a sermon have no place 
among the books I would recommend to a 
young preacher. They may suggest now 
and again a few good illustrations ; but they 
engender and foster a lazy habit of working ; 
the Scripture texts they give without para- 
phrase or application are often inappropriate 
and therefore misleading ; their quotations 
from the Fathers are practically worthless ; 
and their divisions, or points, are generally 
unsuited to an American audience. For a 
young preacher, there is undoubtedly much 
labor and difficulty in working out a sermon 
independently of these factitious helps; 
but with each sermon so prepared by him 



322 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

the work becomes less; the habit of self- 
reliance — of independence of unnecessary 
outside help — grows on him day by day; 
and after a few years he will find that the 
notes he has accumulated will be fuller and 
more available for future use than any on the 
same subjects he can find collected and pub- 
lished to aid him in preparing his sermon. 
For several forms of illustration, such as 
comparison, contrast, metaphor, etc., and 
for most of the motives to be used, we must 
rely on the fertility of our own minds, as books 
will be of no help to us when we are engaged 
in the actual work of preparation. Most 
live preachers are on the alert to find illus- 
trations and motives for their sermons in 
everything they read and in the ordinary 
happenings of their daily lives. All true 
artists and all earnest professional men do 
the same, each in his special line of work ; 
and they do it spontaneously, without effort 
or forethought, because they are true and 
earnest and have their hearts in what they 
do. Were we Catholic priests to imitate 
them, our illustrations would be very much 
more luminous and interesting than they 
are, and our motives more powerful to move 
the feeliDgs and the will. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Arrangement and Composition. 

Little needs to be said here about the ar- 
rangement of matter in a sermon, because 
according to the plan I have recommended 
the preacher has before him what may be 
called a stereotyped outline which he fills up 
by meditation and topical reading. Hence, 
the matter is no sooner found than it is 
arranged in its proper place. As to the 
order of arguments, about which writers on 
oratory are so much divided, the question 
does not affect us, as in an ordinary sermon 
to a Catholic audience we should not use 
formal arguments. We should explain the 
origin and development of revealed truth, 
but we should not prove it. If it be asked, 
however, in what order several texts bearing 
on our theme should be cited and explained, 
I answer that the clearest, most forcible, 
and most applicable should be taken first, 
then the others should be given incidentally 
and in globo. 

(323) 



324 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

NOTE. When a doctrine like the Blessed Eucharist 
is revealed in the Epistles as well as in the Gospels, 
the texts are to be quoted and explained in the order 
of time. 

In the development of each point, exposi- 
tion should insensibly grow into persuasion, 
and for this purpose suitable motives should 
be adduced. Those motives should become 
more and more impassioned as we proceed 
from point to point, and hence be arranged 
as far as possible in the form of a climax. 

Young preachers ought to write their 
sermons and commit them to memory. 
This is a laborious work, and leaves little 
time for recreation, at least for the first 
year after ordination. Hence many shirk 
it, confident that they will not break down, 
and that their sermons will not be worse 
than those they usually hear. They have no 
generous aspirations to make them better; 
and they do not reflect that a dry, soulless 
sermon from one who has grown old in the 
ministry is less of an anomaly than a similar 
sermon from a young priest, whose soul, 
fresh from the consecrating hands of his 
bishop, is supposed to be aglow and vibrat- 
ing with the Spirit of Grod who has descend- 
ed upon it. Those young men go into the 



Manual of Sacred BJietoric. 325 

pulpit , as some one wittily remarked, with 
nothing to say — and they say it. This is 
not the place to preach to them ; but I must 
say, that their seminary training was an 
utter failure, if their conscience does not 
upraid them severely for such careless exe- 
cution of their divine Master's work. 

In regard to the writing and memorizing 
of sermons, three periods in the life of a 
priest may, I think, be distinguished: the 
period of writing and memorizing; the 
period of writing without memorizing ; and 
the period of careful, minute preparation 
without the one or the other. The first of these 
should last until a complete course of ser- 
mons and instructions has been written, or, 
at the very least, during the first two or 
three years on the mission, until the young 
preacher has become perfectly familiar with 
the form of a sermon, has learned to answer 
under the heads of definition, illustration, 
historical development, refutation, and per- 
suasion the different questions given in a 
preceding chapter, and, lastly, has acquired 
such self-possession and command of lan- 
guage that he will be practically safe from 
the danger of useless digressions, of inac- 



326 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

curacy of expression, or, worst of all, of 
utter failure of memory. I think it is arbi- 
trary and unjustifiable to say, as some do, 
that this period should extend over the first 
five years on the mission. Many young 
priests may with advantage enter on the 
second period after their second or third 
year in the ministry. 

The second period covers the interval 
during which we still continue to write our 
sermons, without, however, committing 
them to memory. This period will confirm 
us in the habit of clear, logical thinking, 
and it will also give us greater facility in 
writing idiomatic English. Another advan- 
tage to be derived from it will be an easy, 
natural flow of speech, mostly divested of 
that rigidity of form that can hardly ever 
be entirely removed from written composi- 
tion. The duration of this period can 
scarcely be determined ; but for a preacher 
of average abilities I think one year should 
be sufficient to derive from it all the advan- 
tages I have mentioned. 

The third and last period dispenses with 
writing and memorizing a sermon, but it 
does not dispense with its careful and min- 



Manual of Sacred Blietoric. 327 

ute preparation. The text, the definite ob- 
ject, the proposition, the plan and division, 
must be distinctly determined and written 
out. Then the exposition of each point by 
definition, illustration, etc., as well as the 
motives to be urged, have to be considered, 
not vaguely and summarily, but singly and 
thoroughly as if we were actually writing 
the sermon. It is advisable to take notes 
of the thoughts and sentiments that occur 
to us in the course of this preparation ; as, 
if we do not, we are apt to forget in the 
heat of delivery some of our most effective 
passages and to be led from the main course 
of development into prolix digressions, 
from which the return is both awkward and 
difficult. 

In this third period, a preacher has to ex- 
press his thoughts and sentiments in words 
that come to him in the moment of delivery, 
without study or premeditation. Hence he 
must have a ready and copious supply of 
appropriate language ; the art of composi- 
tion must be like a second nature to him; 
he must be self-possessed, even when he is 
most animated; and he must have such a 
clear idea of the development of his theme, 



328 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

that no thought or sentiment connected 
with it will be forgotten. 

It may be objected that so much reading 
and writing seem superfluous to a priest 
several years on the mission, especially as 
he has written so many sermons that his 
ideas liave now begun to run in grooves 
out of which no amount of preparation will 
take them. In reply, I admit that every 
priest is liable to fall into those grooves, or 
mannerisms, in the latter years of his life. 
Not only will his gestures, the pose of his 
body, and the modulation of his voice be the 
same, Sunday after Sunday; but there will 
be in all his sermons a uniform mode of 
definition, division, illustration, etc. Such 
sameness, being the expression of the 
preacher's individuality, cannot be avoided; 
and it will scarcely be observed, if he be 
earnest and conscientious in his prepara- 
tion. He will realize too vividly the truths 
he announces, and he will be too much 
impressed with the duty of bringing them 
home to the heart and conscience of his 
audience, to be satisfied with giving them, 
no matter how often repeated, in the same 
stale, hackneyed, stereotyped form. Truths 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 329 

grow in the mind of every earnest thinker, 
— they are not today what they were yester- 
day ; and this is especially trne of religious 
truth which meditation keeps developing 
and maturing in the soul all through life. 
Hence, as the doctrine preached a year ago 
will present itself in a fuller light and with 
a deeper meaning to the earnest preacher 
who meditates on it for next Sunday's ser- 
mon, so, too, will he present it with greater 
freshness, clearness and profundity to his 
people. It is true that no substantial change 
can be made in his definitions ; but his de- 
velopment of them will be fuller, more lucid, 
more dense with suggestive thought. His 
illustrations also will be more copious and 
pointed; his quotations from Sacred Scrip- 
ture, history and experience will be more 
ample and vivid ; and, lastly, his motives, 
as arrows sped by a stronger hand, will be 
more certain to attain their object. 

In the third period of a preacher's life, 
then, the preparatory work ought to be as 
minute and painstaking as in the other 
periods, although no formal composition or 
memorizing is required. Age has a tendency 
to lower our ideals and to make us satisfied 



330 Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 

with perfunctory work. Hence, priests 
grown old on the mission, to counteract such 
tendency, must meditate often on the ter- 
rible, mysterious truth, that on the apostolic 
earnestness of their preaching and their 
preparation for preaching, the salvation of 
many souls may virtually depend. No 
doubt, the full, clear, resonant voice of 
young manhood becomes in time weak and 
unmusical ; the luxuriant imagery of earlier 
sermons gives place later on to plain, unem- 
bellished speech; likes and dislikes, love 
and hatred, courage, endurance, ambition, 
— all the f eelings, or passions, in a word, 
grow cold and dull-edged with the waning 
of life, and a corresponding change is vis- 
ible in the matter and form of our sermons. 
But with due preparation, there is an impres- 
siveness — a persuasive force in the calm, 
simple, earnest preaching of a priest grown 
gray in the faithful service of his Master 
that no youthful eloquence can command. 

NOTE. The question is sometimes asked, is it per- 
missible, or even advisable, to preach extempore ? The 
answer depends on the meaning we attach to the word 
extempore. If it mean "without preparation," no 
writer, as far as I know, has ever sanctioned such 
preaching; but if it mean "with due study of matter 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 331 

and arrangement, without writing," then the solution 
of the question is easily determined by what has been 
laid down in the preceding paragraphs. 

Besides the Sunday sermon, a priest has 
often to speak informally to sodalities, 
school children, etc. On such occasions, 
whether he be young or old, he should study 
and arrange what he has to say. He need 
not, indeed, write it out, much less mem- 
orize it; but reverence for the Word he 
announces, as well as respect for his hearers 
and himself, forbids him as the representa- 
tive of his divine Master to speak on sacred 
things in a desultory manner. An ambas- 
sador, acting officially, ought never appear 
in deshabille. 

The practice of composition, begun in the 
preparatory seminary, should be enforced 
as part of the curriculum through the whole 
after course of the clerical student. I know 
this is not done in many seminaries, in 
which, nevertheless, Hebrew is made com- 
pulsory. The consequence is, that the habit 
of writing with ease is lost by disuse ; and 
the young theologian, when he has to write 
a sermon toward the end of his course, 
suffers acute torture in doing a work which 
he should find easy and pleasant. 



332 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

Note. I do not ignore the necessity of a knowledge 
of Hebrew and Greek for the critical study of the Bible; 
but I maintain that for all missionary priests the know- 
ledge of the vernacular is much more necessary. We 
should strive for proficiency in both branches of know- 
ledge ; but if one must be neglected, it certainly should 
not be the latter. 

The following practical hints on the com- 
position of a sermon may be of some use to 
young preachers. 

1. Begin to write only when you have 
studied your theme thoroughly, and have 
acquired a full, clear and distinct knowledge 
of what you are going to write. 

2. Many young writers cannot easily 
determine how to begin. If they had once 
started, they think they would write fluent- 
ly ; but the difficulty with them is how to 
start. Let them imagine themselves in the 
pulpit at the point of their sermon with 
which they begin to write, — say the propo- 
sition. What would they say? Some words 
will surely occur to them, and in all likeli- 
hood they are the best to begin with. 
Another plan of starting for such writers is 
to be indifferent about the first sentence or 
two and to write on with the intention of 
changing or correcting afterwards, if neces- 
sary. Their minds are thus relieved of the 



Manual of Sacred Bhetoric. 333 

burden of reflecting on the propriety of 
every word they use, and they can give their 
undivided energy to the plain, unaffected 
expression of their thoughts and sentiments. 

Note. I may mention here that the less we think of 
the rules of grammar and rhetoric while writing, the 
better we shall write. Unless purity of diction and 
force and elegance of style come naturally and, as I 
may say, spontaneously to us from previous training, 
no amount of correction at the time of writing will 
secure them. 

3. Make no effort to write fine language. 
If your thought be beautiful, simplicity of 
expression will make it more beautiful still 
— will be its best setting. Balanced phrases 
and clauses and all artificial sentence- 
forms have scarcely any place in oratory, 
whether sacred or profane. Under fine 
writing, however, I do not include figurative 
language, in which genuine passion finds 
its natural expression. 

4. Keep in mind that a sermon is essen- 
tially a conciliatory, persuasive discourse. 
If you are a young preacher, your composi- 
tion is apt to be abstract and didactic — a 
theological essay rather than a popular 
address. While you write, therefore, ask 
yourself frequently : Will the people under- 
stand this presentment of the theme? Will it 



334 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

interest them? Will it stimulate them? Will 
it dispose them toward the definite object I 
have in view? Eemember that the oratorical 
instinct should lead you to write or say, not 
what appears most beautiful or impressive 
in itself, but what will appear such to the 
audience you address. 

5. When you find it hard to make your 
exposition or enforcement of some truth or 
duty simple and interesting, imagine your- 
self trying to bring it home to the most ig- 
norant, dull-witted member of your parish, 
as you sit face to face with him in your 
library. Write down every word you would 
say to him, every repetition you would make 
to bring your ideas more thoroughly home 
to him, every difficulty of the understand- 
ing, every repugnance of the will you would 
remove from him, every motive of action 
you would urge on him. Write all this, and 
your sermon will be as complete, as popular, 
as successful as it is in your power to make 
it. Your eager determination to convince 
and persuade him will make you anxious 
about the ideas and sentiments you convey, 
but not about the words in which you con- 
vey them. These will come spontaneously 



Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 335 

from your trained power of expression ; and 
they will be all the more simple and forc- 
ible, for not being studied or even thought 
of apart from the knowledge they convey. 

6. Sermons composed at odds and ends 
of time can scarcely ever be well written. 
The soul must be at white heat before it can 
infuse itself into any work it undertakes; and 
time and thought and feeling are required 
to bring it to that ardent state. Hence I 
should recommend that not less than an 
hour's sitting should be given to the com- 
position of a sermon until it is finished. 

7. It will sometimes occur that a priest, 
beginning to write his sermon, will find his 
mind so clouded and torpid, that he can 
scarcely put two ideas together, much less 
give adequate expression to a consecutive 
fine of thought. Some would advise him 
not to write until such darkness and inert- 
ness pass away. Their advice may be useful 
for amateurs, but cannot be acted on by 
one whose time for preparing his sermons 
is limited. His best way for rising above 
those clouds that sometimes settle on the 
soul is to read some book that will have a 
stimulating, inspiring effect on him — a book 



336 Manual of Sacred Rhetoric. 

that will set him thinking, that will suggest 
to him noble, beautiful thoughts. Let him 
read a page or two of such a book; and he 
must be very dull indeed if, after doing so, 
he will not find himself able if not impelled 
to begin to write. Everyone of any literary 
culture will know what books have the most 
stimulating effect on him; and he will do 
well to keep one or more of them by him. 







> 



-68 



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